In Mexico, dual citizenship is starting to sound like a political liability

“Why have dual nationality if you’re going to represent the people of Mexico?”With that question, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo revived an old debate about citizenship and political allegiance, as Mexico considers a ban on dual nationality for anyone aspiring to higher office.A proposed constitutional change now before the federal legislature would require presidential and gubernatorial candidates to hold only Mexican citizenship. Why We Wrote This The Mexican government is weighing a proposal to require anyone running for office to hold only Mexican citizenship. But does citizenship automatically mean loyalty to a country? The immediate catalyst for the president’s question, posed at an Aug. 25 press conference, was the case of an ex-governor in Mexico who fled to Texas following accusations of his involvement with organized crime and money laundering. Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca has dual U.S.-Mexican nationality, and staying in the U.S. has put him out of reach for Mexican authorities.Another factor fueling the debate around citizenship and loyalty here in Mexico is the state of the country’s relationship with its neighbor to the north. President Donald Trump has tested ties between the United States and its closest allies, including Mexico and Canada, with steep tariffs and threats of U.S. intervention. That has generated a burst of patriotism and shaped local politics in both countries. A proposed constitutional ban that raises questions about Mexican sovereignty has become a political win at home for President Sheinbaum, who has promised to work with Washington “without subordination,” as she put it.“The important thing is the defense of the nation and homeland,” said Dr. Sheinbaum, who proposed the constitutional change.Many Mexicans agree with their president that the reform secures allegiance. But it has stirred deeper conversations about loyalty to one’s homeland, including memories of past leaders in Mexico who have worked against national interests despite holding only one passport.The proposed reform is “superficial,” news commentator Javier Garza Ramos said in a recent episode of the Mexican current affairs podcast El Noti.“You could have a governor who is Mexican through and through – born in Mexico, holding no other nationality – and yet he hands over his state’s government to drug traffickers, or passes information to the United States or some other foreign government.”“A moral abomination”From the late 1800s and into the mid-20th century, worldwide, holding dual citizenship was “considered a moral abomination, akin to bigamy,” says Peter Spiro, law professor at Temple University and author of “At Home in Two Countries: The Past and Future of Dual Citizenship.”Citizenship was directly linked to a nation’s military standing, the key indicator of national might at the time. But, by the end of the Cold War, as economic prowess and technology changed how wars were fought, and globalization transformed everything from business to government affairs, many countries started changing rules around dual citizenship, Mr. Spiro says. David Guttenfelder/AP/File Former Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori waves to supporters from behind a group of Japanese security guards after delivering a lecture at Takushoku University in Tokyo, Jan. 10, 2002. Mr. Fujimori has both Peruvian and Japanese citizenship. “The [old fashioned] understandings about what citizenship entailed were dissipating, and so, too, were concerns about conflicting loyalties,” he says.Today many see dual nationality as something positive, or a privilege.A similar prohibition against dual citizenship has not emerged in other parts of the region since President Trump took office, but some countries have grappled with the question in the past. In 2000, as corruption scandals were closing in on his government, Peru’s then-President Alberto Fujimori fled to Japan, where he was also a citizen. That was widely viewed as a way to evade legal scrutiny.More recently, Colombia elected its new President Abelardo de la Espriella, who through naturalization also holds U.S. citizenship. On the campaign trail, his adoration for President Trump raised eyebrows about where his loyalty lies.“I have no doubt that de Espriella would be just as reactionary, just as pro-American, and just as much of a Trump supporter even if he weren’t a U.S. citizen,” Mr. Garza Ramos, the podcaster, said.During the Cold War, three consecutive Mexican presidents were later shown to have collaborated secretly with the CIA. Each of them – Adolfo López Mateos, Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, and Luis Echeverría – held only Mexican citizenship. First lady Jacqueline Kennedy, speaking in Spanish, praises Mexico’s efforts to create a more abundant life for its people as President Adolfo López Mateos of Mexico and President John F. Kennedy stand at her side, in Mexico City, June 30, 1962. Mr. Mateos, later shown to have collaborated secretly with the CIA, held only Mexican citizenship. A 2015 study in Switzerland found there was no difference between how dual citizens and sole-Swiss citizens identified with the country or engaged with politics. The findings challenged the idea that “divided loyalty” is inherent with dual nationals.But for Irma Cardona, a seamstress waiting for the bus on a drizzly afternoon in central Mexico City, the suggestion that a future Mexican president might hold dual nationality with, say, the United States, makes her eyes widen in shock.“No, no. It just wouldn’t work,” Ms. Cardona says. “Mexico needs to be led by a Mexican. They can’t have one foot out the door to another country.”Changing attitudes about dual citizenshipThere hasn’t been polling on this specific constitutional reform in Mexico, but a January 2026 survey by El Financiero looked at the issue of sovereignty. If it came down to choosing between Mexican cooperation with the U.S. on the one hand, and Mexico’s own national interests, more than 75% of respondents said they’d prefer defending Mexican sovereignty.Although this proposed constitutional change fits into Dr. Sheinbaum’s nationalist rhetoric, some say it’s shortsighted. It goes against a trend in recent years of expanding political rights in Mexico – not restricting them, says Ignacio Alonso Velasco, professor of social sciences and humanities at the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Quintana Roo.Until fairly recently, Mexico’s Constitution required presidential candidates to be born to parents who were both born in Mexico (second-generation Mexican on both sides of their family tree). Overturning that rule permitted former President Vicente Fox, whose mother immigrated from Spain, to serve in the top office from 2000-2006.“Here in Mexico, laws are made for someone in particular, with a first and last name. They aren’t made with the criteria of justice and equality in mind,” says Dr. Velasco.He says Dr. Sheinbaum’s push to require candidates for higher office to hold only Mexican citizenship is primarily about her frustration with the former governor, Mr. Cabeza de Vaca, who is currently shielded from Mexican authorities while he’s living in Texas.Dr. Velasco is a dual Spanish-Mexican citizen, and is part of the nongovernmental organization Mexicanos de Corazón, which promotes equal treatment for all Mexicans, whether they’re Mexican by birth or naturalization. The group successfully got the state of Quintana Roo to eliminate birth-nationality restrictions in 2023 that had prevented naturalized Mexicans from holding a handful of state and municipal elected positions.He sees the president’s proposed reform as a step backward for human rights. And beyond that, Dr. Velasco says it’s out of touch with reality.“Insisting that a person hold only one nationality rests on the presumption that someone with dual nationality will betray their country and prioritize another nation’s interests over Mexico’s,” he says. “Yet, a Mexican holding only Mexican nationality is just as capable of betraying the country.”