Mexico Puts Them Out of the Picture : Commerce: The Mexican Consulate requires on-premises photos of travelers, angering businesses that once offered them.

Last Christmas season, Jose Martinez’s downtown shop was thronged with Mexican nationals who needed photographs of themselves for permits to travel home for the holidays.

This year, his place is empty.

Instead, the lines are two doors away at the Mexican Consulate, which this month bought its own camera and announced that only photographs taken on the premises could be used for the permits.

The consulate’s decision has angered area business owners whose livelihoods depend on taking the photographs as much as the people seeking the permits, whose wait in line has become four times as long.

“We pay taxes, and yet we’re without work because a monopoly has been created inside the consulate,” Martinez said. “We’re the little people, so there’s no defense for us.”

Mexican nationals seeking the permits start lining up at the consulate about 6 a.m. each business day. By the time the office opens at 8 a.m., hundreds of people are waiting in a line that sometimes winds halfway around the block. A wait that used to be one hour is now about four hours.

“I had to miss half a day of work today,” said Luis Cardenas, 24, who was traveling to Mazatlan for Christmas. “I got here at 6:30 in the morning, and I thought it was going to be a lot easier than this.”

Martha Lara, an employee at Hilgenfeld Mortuary in Anaheim, didn’t have to wait in line since she deals with the consulate regularly when obtaining paper work to transport bodies back to Mexico. But she said she was surprised by the size of the crowds at the consulate this month.

“I have never seen such tremendous lines,” Lara said. “They have never been this big before. I feel sorry for all of these people.”

Maria de Lourdes, a Mexican Consulate official, said she is aware of the hardship the change in procedure has caused area businesses. She explained that the change, which took effect Dec. 3, was mandated by the Mexican government for consulates in California, Texas and Illinois.

“They decided to simplify the process by having everything done here,” De Lourdes said. “The objective is to make the process quicker and more efficient.”

Martinez argued that the change has done just the opposite, causing tremendous inconvenience for everyone.

“It can’t possibly speed up the process when the work of seven photographers is now being done by one person, “ Martinez said.

Martinez and six other business owners are protesting the policy change by circulating petitions among the Mexican nationals waiting in line for the travel permits. So far, more than 800 people have signed the petitions, which Martinez plans to present to the Santa Ana City Council.

“We’re getting lousy service, and it won’t change if we don’t protest,” said Pedro Chavez, a 12-year resident of the United States who had been waiting in line for more than two hours Thursday and still had 200 people ahead of him.

The photos are for a travel permit known as a matricular consular, a document that resembles a driver’s license and provides proof to the Mexican government that the person traveling in Mexico is a legal resident of the United States. It is valid for five years and allows Mexican nationals to travel freely between the two countries, De Lourdes said.

Martinez said about 40% of the business at his travel agency came from taking the photographs.

“The sky fell on us,” said Martinez, 41, of Westminster. “On a good day, we’d make $900 on photos alone. Now, it’s down to zero.”

The consulate formerly charged $15.80 for the permit but raised the price Dec. 3 to $20.80, which consolidated the cost of the permit with the price of the photo. Most of the businesses were charging $5 for two photos.

While all of the businesses provide other services besides taking photos, their owners said most rely on selling the photos to make ends meet.

Lucy Velasco owns two shops near the consulate, one that offers legal services and another that is a small photo studio. Velasco said the second shop is now unnecessary, and she is stuck with a one-year lease.

Velasco said she has laid off one employee since Dec. 3 and complained that the lost income has made for a difficult holiday season.

“I feel very bad about it,” said Velasco, 32. “A good percentage of my livelihood is the photos.”

PERMITS FOR MEXICAN TRAVEL

Average number of traveling permits requested each day:

Santa Ana Consulate January through October 125 November and December 250

Cost: $20.80. Includes: paper work, photo and lamination

Most common destinations: Mexico City, Baja California, Guerrero, Michoacan, Zacatecas, Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Consulates using new system: California, Texas and Illinois.

Source: Santa Ana Mexican Consulate