The State Department is initiating a review of all 53 Mexican consulates operating in the United States, a U.S. official told CBS News on Thursday, in a move that could lead Secretary of State Marco Rubio to consider ordering the closure of some diplomatic offices.
The review comes as bilateral tensions build over security cooperation and cartel violence, and it follows the deaths of two American CIA officers after a counter-narcotics operation in northern Mexico last month.
A State Department official said the review is part of a broader effort to align U.S. foreign policy with the Trump administration’s priorities.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs, said the “Department of State is constantly reviewing all aspects of American foreign relations to ensure they are in line with the President’s America First foreign policy agenda and advance American interests.”
Mexico maintains the largest foreign consular network in the United States, with offices that provide documentation and legal aid to millions of Mexican citizens living across the country. Most are concentrated in border states and cities with large Mexican American populations, including California, Texas and Arizona.
In recent years, U.S. consulate closures have usually reflected rising tensions with rival countries rather than routine diplomatic changes. In 2020, as relations between Washington and Beijing worsened, the Trump administration ordered China’s consulate in Houston to close, citing concerns over espionage and intellectual property theft. In 2017, the U.S. ordered Russia to close its consulate in San Francisco, along with diplomatic facilities in Washington and New York, in response to Moscow expelling American diplomats.
Tensions between the U.S. and Mexico spiked last month following the deaths of two American officials — later confirmed by CBS News to have been working for the CIA — who died alongside two Mexican investigators after their vehicle crashed in a remote mountain region where authorities were targeting suspected drug laboratories.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ronald Johnson announced the deaths of two embassy staff members in a post on X on April 19.
The operation quickly stoked political controversy, after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said the American officers may not have had authorization from the federal government to operate in the country and publicly demanded explanations from the Trump administration.
The dispute has widened in recent days, as the U.S. announced drug trafficking and weapons charges against top Mexican political figures and issued multiple extradition requests, including one for Sinaloa Governor Rubén Rocha Moya.
Sheinbaum said this week that Mexico’s Foreign Ministry sent a diplomatic note to Washington requesting evidence from the U.S. Justice Department regarding the allegations against Rocha and other senior officials, saying Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office would investigate if credible evidence was provided.
Rocha denied the accusations, calling them false, and said he would temporarily leave office to focus on his defense and cooperate with Mexican authorities as the case proceeds.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico later said combating corruption and transnational organized crime remains a shared priority for both governments. While declining to comment on the specific allegations, the embassy said corruption that enables organized crime “will be investigated and prosecuted wherever U.S. jurisdiction applies.”
The diplomatic strife comes amid an expanded CIA counternarcotics push under Director John Ratcliffe, who has sought to advance a key Trump administration priority by deepening intelligence-sharing and training with Mexican antidrug units and has included surveillance drone flights over Mexico targeting cartel operations.
The growing U.S. role has fueled debate in Mexico over its sovereignty and security cooperation with the Trump administration, especially as President Trump has repeatedly floated taking unilateral military action against cartels.
The CIA declined to comment.
CBS News has reached out to the Mexican embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
