Mexico border city mayor says US revoked his visa

Mexico border city mayor says US revoked his visa

The mayor of Nogales, on the Arizona border, became the latest official to lose the privilege amid an immigration crackdown.

Mexico border
A US armoured combat vehicle is positioned behind a metal fence along the Mexico-US border in Ciudad Juarez. (EPA Images pic)
MEXICO CITY:
The mayor of a northern Mexico border city said Thursday that US authorities had revoked his visa, the latest Mexican official to lose the privilege.

Juan Francisco Gim, the mayor of Nogales, which borders the US state of Arizona, said in a video posted on X that “the United States government has taken a measure regarding my immigration status, which I respect.”

In May last year, Marina del Pilar Avila, the governor of the northwestern Mexican state of Baja California, which also borders the United States, said US authorities had canceled her visa.

Both politicians are members of the ruling Morena party.

Under US law, foreign visa records are confidential, and immigration authorities declined to provide details.

Gim did not specify the reason behind the visa revocation, but stated it was part of “an administrative process” and that US authorities had not accused him of “anything improper at all.”

“I continue to work normally… I even participate in binational meetings on security issues,” the Nogales mayor said in the video.

Last month, the Nogales mayor praised the Donald Trump administration’s immigration crackdown as “cleaning house” in an interview on Fox News.

In recent months, popular Mexican musicians including Grupo Firme, Julion Alvarez and Lorenzo de Monteclaro had to cancel or postpone performances in the US due to visa issues.

The visas of Mexican band Los Alegres del Barranco were revoked last April for displaying images of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, alias “El Mencho”, leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, during a concert.

Washington has designated the group as a terrorist organisation.

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