Mexican Consulate brings services to Salinas without an appointment, fighting “scalpers”

SALINAS, Calif. (KION-TV) -- The Central Coast took advantage of a visit by the mexican consulate of San Jose to process documents on Saturday.

Usually, people need an appointment, but there was an exception because the consulate wants to prevent "scalpers" from targeting the Mexican community.

"The important thing is to fight against those people who are taking advantage of our nationals and selling the spaces or taking their information," General Consul of Mexico in San Jose, Alejandra Boloña told KION.

The consulate said scalpers have been booking all the appointments and selling them for up to $150.

Staff warned that going through a third party can also put people's information at risk and even lead to identity theft.

"It is important to work with the community to assure them that they can obtain their documents by making their appointments, there are spaces for everyone, it is just a matter of taking the time to make them", Boloña stated.

130 people showed up to Saint Mary's Catholic Church in Salinas where the consulate processed Mexican passports, the Matricula Consular and Mexican voter's ID.

 But not everyone was lucky enough to get help. Adriana Garcia lives in Salinas. She said these mobile consulates shold be held more frequeantly because there is a lot of demand and consulate should publicize the dates in advance.

Garcia said she already asked at places that process appointments and they charge more than $40.

The consulate wasn't able to help everyone Saturday, but they say if there's an emergency, people can still request documents without an appointment.

Everyone got their documents Saturday within a matter of hours.

If you need to make an appointment with the consulate, you can visit the website: https://citas.sre.gob.mx/  or send a text by WhatsApp: +1 (424) 309-0009.