Propublica: US looks to revoke visas of Mexican politicians with alleged cartel ties

The Trump medication has begun revoking U.S. visas for Mexican politicians it believes are linked to the cause trade, including high-profile members of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s ruling Morena party, according to a caller ProPublica investigation.

The database of targets includes Mexican authorities governors and allies of erstwhile President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, signaling a crisp escalation successful bilateral tensions.

Last weekend, Baja California Governor Marina del Pilar Ávila revealed her visa was canceled successful caller weeks, arsenic was the visa of her husband, Carlos Torres Torres, a subordinate of Mexico’s little location of Congress, the Chamber of Deputies, from 2006 to 2009.

According to longtime writer Adela Navarro, editor-in-chief of Tijuana’s Zeta Weekly, the politician is “collateral damage” successful a U.S. probe targeting her hubby and her brother-in-law, Luis Alfonso Torres.

Navarro said successful an interrogation connected Radio Fórmula the 2 brothers are nether probe for their imaginable engagement successful a lawsuit of stolen substance that reportedly entered Mexico illegally from Texas.

“What we were told [by unnamed sources inside] the State Department was that she would beryllium collateral damage. In the United States, they often bash this by disabling the interior ellipse of the idiosyncratic of interest,” the writer said. “The ones they are investigating are Carlos Torres and his brother.”

Zeta Weekly successful Tijuana reported that Baja California Governor Ávila’s visa revocation was “collateral damage” successful a U.S. probe into her husband’s alleged substance smuggling activity. (Carlos Torres/Facebook)

The question that persists successful Mexico, “particularly among the overwhelming Morena wing,” Navarro wrote successful a portion for Zeta Weekly, “is whether President Sheinbaum volition prevention the estimation of [Governor Ávila] by interceding with the U.S. authorities to person her B1/B2 tourer visa reactivated.”

Torres’ visa was revoked astatine the Tijuana borderline crossing astir 3 weeks ago, according to Zeta Weekly, with the politician notified aboriginal “via consular service” that hers was being revoked, too.

The ProPublica report, published Thursday, said the “Trump medication has begun to enforce question restrictions and different sanctions connected salient Mexican politicians whom it believes are linked to cause corruption,” accusation the study attributed to U.S. officials.

The  study added: “U.S. officials said they expect much Mexicans to beryllium targeted arsenic the medication works done a database of respective twelve governmental figures who person been identified by instrumentality enforcement and quality agencies arsenic having ties to the cause trade.”

All of this coincides with a study released Thursday by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) successful which an entity codenamed Operation Top Fuel (Liquid Death) links Mexican cartels to a multibillion-dollar substance theft ring.

The 2025 National Drug Threat Assessment notes that transgression organizations similar the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel smuggle stolen Pemex substance to concern narcotics operations.

A Navy seaman stands defender aft a substance smuggling bust successful Tamaulipas. Fuel smuggling, known arsenic huachicol successful Mexico, is simply a large income root for organized crime. (SEMAR)

“This black-market petroleum smuggling cognition is the superior means by which the Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO) finances its networks,” the DEA wrote.

According to ProPublica, the cognition that snagged Ávila and Torres revives a 2019 DEA database of “several dozen” Mexican officials compiled aft López Obrador began shutting down Mexico’s practice with the U.S. successful counterdrug programs.

Seeking to “identify Mexican authorities figures who could beryllium criminally prosecuted for aiding cause traffickers,” the earlier effort led to the 2019 indictment and 2024 condemnation of ex-Security Chief Genaro García Luna.

As for Ávila, absorption lawmakers specified arsenic National Action Party (PAN) Deputy Federico Döring person urged her to “step down” and “use that clip to clarify what she needs to clarify with U.S. authorities.”

“Why? What statement bash you have?” Sheinbaum countered.

Ávila denied having overseas slope accounts — “they don’t exist,” she said — but remained soundless connected her husband’s finances. The U.S. Embassy declined to comment, citing visa privateness rules.

The White House inaugural invokes Section 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, allowing visa bans for suspected cause collaborators. ProPublica reported Treasury sanctions freezing U.S. assets could follow.

The cognition is being overseen by White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller and Deputy Homeland Security Adviser Anthony Salisbury, noted ProPublica.

Former Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhaan warned successful the ProPublica study that the crackdown risks inflaming tensions.

“It gives [Sheinbaum] — a nationalistic president with a precise chauvinistic enactment down her — a cleanable excuse to accidental that everything atrocious that’s happening successful Mexico … is due to the fact that of U.S. imperialism,” helium said.

With reports from Proceso, El Sol de México, LatinUS, Radio Fórmula and Zeta Tijuana