Three months after Casa Tlaxcala in New York was inaugurated, it has already provided more than 400 advisories to migrant residents who have needed consular services and expects to continue advancing with the Family Reunion program, which will seek to strengthen ties between Tlaxcalans in Mexico and the United States.
This was stated by Gabriela Hernandez Montiel, Director of Migrant Assistance in the state of Tlaxcala, in an interview with Peninsula 360 Press, who said that under the command of Governor Lorena Cuellar Cisneros, it has been possible to provide service to nationals who need special documentation that is not so easy to obtain because many of them cannot travel to their place of origin to get them.
"It is the first administration that is concerned about everyone, including our nationals. And it has taken on the task of working together with our colleague Marco Castillo, who is our advisor, to open Casa Tlaxcala," he said from Casa de los Pueblos, headquarters of Molino Informativo.
The task, said Hernandez Montiel, was not easy "but we are already here giving results. Three months after the opening of Casa Tlaxcala, we have provided more than 400 counseling services to Mexican nationals".
"We want to work with the family reunion program, which is very nice because we help families that have not been reunited after this pandemic and that thank God we survived and are here, to give them the opportunity to hug their parents and grandparents again. We are with this program here in New York and we have already had four reunions," she said.
Although it is not known how many Tlaxcalans live in the Big Apple, the Mexican official assured that it is an important population and that the state, together with Casa Tlaxcala, is already working on a census that will allow them to learn more about this community and its needs.
"We Tlaxcalans are very hardy and we are everywhere. Another of the states -in the American Union- in which they are also important is California, where we are also already in talks.
In this sense, he asserted that it is important for the state to get closer to the organizations.
"We are also looking for support with them because all Tlaxcalans are organized by groups and it is important to knock on doors."
Regarding the Reunion Program, he said that all those Tlaxcalans in the Bay Area can contact Casa Tlaxcala in New York so that they can ask for advice and in turn give the information to their relatives so that they can approach the Directorate of Attention to Migrants in the state of Tlaxcala and be enrolled in the program.
He added that, in order to promote the program, Governor Cuellar is providing 50 percent of the flight, while all ground transportation is free, and a reception is organized for the visitors.
"The only condition is that they cannot stay, I have to take them back and that is the only condition," he said.
In terms of services, Hernandez said that the issuance of birth certificates is one of the procedures and tasks that are most worked on at Casa Tlaxcala, which manages, together with the area of Attention to Migrants in Tlaxcala, the expediting of the issuance, as well as clarifications and corrections in the certificates.
When questioned about the Tlaxcalans who unfortunately lose their lives in the United States and who seek to repatriate the bodies but do not have the resources, the official stressed that the relatives of the deceased should approach the consulate that corresponds to them and ask for information.
However, he clarified that, most of the time, the consulate helps with 50 percent -more or less- of the transfer costs, while the other part must be paid by the family member in order to repatriate the body to any municipality in Mexico City.
Finally, he emphasized that there are still several projects between the state of Tlaxcala and various cities in this country in terms of reunions and for young people who are of Tlaxcala origin to learn about their roots and culture through tours to the state of Mexico.
The phone number for Casa Tlaxcala in New York is 3322175684, while the phone number for the Migrant Attention area in Tlaxcala, Mexico is 2464662888.
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