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Read about the establishment of Casa Tlaxcala in May 2024 here.
Casa Tlaxcala Jackson Hole closed five months after opening this year. It is unclear if the office — which helped Mexican citizens with travel paperwork like visas, passport appointments and driver’s licenses — will reopen or why it closed. A handwritten sign on the door says someone will be back soon.
The office is a branch of the Governor’s office in the state of Tlaxcala, where a majority of the Mexican families in Jackson can trace their roots.
The Casa Tlaxcala office was located in Silicon Couloir’s co-working space off Broadway in downtown Jackson. The sign on the office door has since been removed and the office has yet to reopen. (Hanna Merzbach / KHOL)
Carmen Arias moved to Jackson in April to staff an office for the Tlaxcalan state government in Jackson. She helped about 50 Mexican citizens a month, she said.
She said she found a good opportunity in Idaho.
“I’m not sure why it’s closed,” she said. “I’m pretty sure that the Governor is looking for the best option for families from Tlaxcala.”
After several calls and emails requesting comment from the Tlaxcalan Direccion de Atención a Migrantes, or migrant assistance, a representative who was not authorized to comment officially, said it was too expensive. The small office at Silicon Couloir rented for $1,400 a month, said Rob Kellogg, the organization’s executive director.
But Arias said that should not have been an issue.
“The money is not a problem because it’s a government, it’s the governor,” she said.
Casa Tlaxcala helped about 250 people while it was open, Arias said. It also helps seniors visit their families in America for a month.
The center received scrutiny from some leaders in the state Republican party like Rebecca Bextel, who said she visited the office several times looking for information and was concerned senior migrants could take resources from Jacksonites.
“What’s to stop us from welcoming a 70-year-old elderly relative, a family member from Mexico, and then heading to the hospital and getting lots of free health care and then heading back to Mexico without paying the bill.”
Susana Saldana holds her 4-year-old grandson, Diego, at a family reunion event at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church in Jackson on April 24. Saldana is from Tlaxcala, Mexico, where much of Jackson’s immigrant community is from, but has lived in town for over 20 years. Her mom was one of 10 seniors visiting, as part of a program from Casa Tlaxcala, the new immigrant resource center. (Hanna Merzbach / KHOL).
State Representative Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, from Cody, echoed similar concerns in a letter she sent to Casa Tlaxcala this summer, which she also disseminated as a press release. She wrote she was worried the center “may assist illegal immigrants” in getting identification to vote.
KHOL found no evidence that the center was helping non-citizens vote. Arias said she was in the country legally and criticism was not one of the reasons she left her job.
There are two similar offices that are branches of the Mexican state’s Governor’s office in the US, one in New York and one in California. Monica Sanchez Angulo leads migrant assistance for the Tlaxcalan state. Answering an email asking for an interview, she said the government was “restructuring our workflow to optimize the assistance we offer.” She has not responded to questions about the closure or plans for the office.
The Town of Jackson and Hueyotlipan, a city in Tlaxcala, officially became sister cities in April. There are two offices with the same name that are branches of the Mexican state’s Governor’s office in the US, one in New York and one in California.
This article has been updated online to clarify that Casa Tlaxcala helped with passport appointments. Passports are federal documents and cannot be issued by the state.
