As Utah’s Latino population grows, members of the Colombian and Ecuadorian communities want better access to services provided by their home countries.
“We need a consulate here in Utah because there are many Ecuadorians here. Utah is an easy-going, family-oriented state, and this has drawn the immigrant community,” said Juan Carlos Llumipanta, who leads Mijines en Utah, a cultural and education group geared to Ecuadorians and Ecuadorian Americans in the state.
Likewise, Jonatan Fonseca, of Colombianos Unidos Utah, a cultural group geared to the Colombian community, said consular access would be welcome in the state given the long trip otherwise required to the Colombian Consulate in San Francisco. His group launched a public petition calling on Colombian authorities to open a consulate in Utah. As is, officials from the San Francisco office travel to Utah just once or twice a year, and they typically can’t serve all those seeking help.
“More than 1,000 regularly sign up (for assistance), but they can only help around 500,” Fonseca said. The next visit to Utah by representatives from the San Francisco consular office is set for Dec. 10-12 in Salt Lake City.
Mijines en Utah similarly launched a petition to prod Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry to open a consulate in Utah, noting, among other things, the 10-hour drive to Phoenix, where the current consular office serving Utah is located. A local office, the petition says, would allow members of the Ecuadorian community here to get quicker responses to requests for help securing passports and other consular services.
Furthermore, the petition argues, a local office would encourage “a sense of belonging among our diaspora” and bolster economic and cultural links between Ecuador and Utah.
Each petition has garnered just 500-plus signatories, which Fonseca says may not send the strongest message of support for a local consulate to Colombian authorities. At any rate, both he and Llumipanta said the local population from the South American countries, like the overall Latino population, has grown in recent years, which they say bodes for creation of consulates here.
“We want something that’s our own,” said Llumipana, who’s originally from Ecuador but now lives in Vineyard. As it stands, Mexico, El Salvador and Peru operate consular offices in Utah, and Guatemalan officials are investigating the possibility of opening a consular office in Utah.
U.S. Census Bureau estimates from 2023 put the foreign-born population in Utah from Colombia at 6,610, a jump of nearly 200% from 2013, and the foreign-born population from Ecuador at 2,661, up 71% from 10 years prior. Llumipanta estimates the number of Ecuadorians in Utah at 5,000.
By contrast, the foreign-born populations as of 2023 for the three countries with consular offices in Utah — Mexico, El Salvador and Peru — totaled 101,661, 7,992 and 9,104, respectively. The foreign-born population includes naturalized U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, immigrants here illegally and others.
A ‘strategic investment’
Consular offices serve expatriate communities, providing passports, national identity cards and other documents to nationals of the foreign countries they represent. They sometimes also register births of nationals from their countries living here in the United States, register those living abroad to vote in home elections and notarize documents, among other things.
Llumipanta said passport services offered by Ecuadorian consular officials are particularly important, because such documentation can be key for some Ecuadorians living here in securing bank accounts or renting apartments. The petition for an Ecuadorian Consulate in Utah also alluded to the current climate in the United States toward immigrants. “In the context of current immigration policy in the United States, having valid and updated documentation is more important than ever,” it reads.
The petition for a Colombian Consulate in Utah argues an office here would be a “strategic investment for Colombia, facilitating better commerce, tourism and cultural relations.”