http://www.kinston.com

Several consulates call Raleigh home
January 15,2006
BY Barry Smith
freedom
Freedom Raleigh Bureau

RALEIGH - A Mexican citizen living in North Carolina could find himself needing to obtain a passport or Matricular ID card at some point. Or a Canadian business could need help setting up trade in the state.

Both the Mexican citizen and Canadian business could find help from their respective consulates in Raleigh.

Mexico opened a consulate in Raleigh in November 2000. Canada's Raleigh consulate opened in January 2004. The two function differently as their missions are different.

"The main activities here are related to business development, economic relations, trade and collaborations between businesses and universities in both countries," said Louis Boisvert, Canada's consul in Raleigh.

"Our main focus is tending to the Mexican population," said Karla Ornelas, deputy consul from Mexico.

Before Mexico opened its Raleigh consulate office in 2000, the consul in Washington, D.C., served the North Carolina Mexican population while the office in Atlanta served Mexicans in South Carolina.

Both realized that there was an increasing Mexican population in the Carolinas. So they decided to open the office in North Carolina.

Ornelas said that the Raleigh office served approximately 71,000 people in 2004, the latest year that figures are available.

"Most people come here for their documents," Ornelas said.

Matricular identification cards are issued mainly for purposes of registering Mexicans in the United States, she said. "Sometimes they can use it as a form of ID here in the United States," she added.

In addition to issuing passports and Matricular ID cards, the Mexican consulate offers legal orientation to Mexican citizens.

"We visit prisons," she said, and while the office does not take part in the legal defense of a Mexican charged with a crime, it does try to make sure that due process is followed.

The office helps people who want to repatriate back to Mexico and helps facilitate shipping the remains of Mexicans who die here back to their native country.

The Canadian consulate takes on a much different role.

"It's basically giving wider exposure about Canada in this area," Boisvert said.

Boisvert said the decision was made to open the consulate in Raleigh because they wanted a bigger presence in all the regions, not just the big regions.

"We found that we did not have a presence in the fast-growing areas," he said. "We've very focused on developing relations. We spend a lot of time one-on-one."

Many of the documentation and personal services for Canadian citizens are conducted out of the Atlanta office, Boisvert said, noting that Canadians tend to blend in well in the United States.

"They don't really feel that they are in a foreign country," he added.

Neither consulate is located in downtown Raleigh, where most state government buildings are located. Both Boisvert and Ornelas said neither was particularly trying to avoid being near state government offices.

"It's a temporary location," Boisvert said of the Canadian consulate's office suite in northwest Raleigh on Glenwood Avenue. "It was a nice way to get established quickly."

The Mexican consulate's office was originally downtown, on Fayetteville Street, Ornelas said, but then moved to an old Taco Bell building in north Raleigh, at the corner of Six Forks and Wake Forest roads.

"It has to do more with office space than location," she said, noting that the former location didn't have enough space.


Barry Smith can be reached at bsmith@link.freedom.com.