http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-1 ... population

Mexican consular office comes to Baltimore

Latino residents receive documents, other services at event

November 13, 2010
By Jessica Anderson, The Baltimore Sun

Lines snaked around the gymnasium Saturday at the Friendship Academy in Canton, where about 500 Latino residents received passports, birth certificates or other services offered by the Mexican consulate and Baltimore City.

The mobile consulate event helped recent immigrants in the city obtain documents, as well as legal and health services, without having to travel to the nearest consulate office in Washington.

"Because there is a large population here, we wanted to bring our services here," said AnĂ*bal GĂłmez Toledo, head of the Mexican consular office in D.C..

"We expected to have 500. We are certainly going to have that number," he said, noting the "large community of Mexican nationals" in Baltimore.

In the past decade, the city's Latino population has grown to about 15,000 residents, or about 3 percent of the total population, largely concentrated around the neighborhoods in Fells Point, Canton and Highlandtown. In the entire state, the Hispanic population has increased by at least 65 percent or about 375,830 since 2000.
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This appears to be a push by Mexico in NC and MD. It is probably happening in other states as well.