ND Law Professor Jimmy Gurulé Leads Trainings for Mexican Foreign Affairs Officials and Advances the Program for the Defense of Mexican Nationals

Notre Dame Law Professor Jimmy Gurulé, founder and director of the Notre Dame Exoneration Justice Clinic (EJC), conducted two four-hour training sessions on August 13-14 at Mexico's Directorate-General for Consular Protection and Strategic Planning, a division of the country's Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Katie Takeuchi, staff attorney at the EJC, joined Gurulé in Mexico City to facilitate the sessions. The training covered major causes of wrongful conviction, procedures for evaluating cases for the Program for the Defense of Mexican Nationals (PDM), and an overview of the American criminal justice system. Fifteen members of Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs participated in the first day of training.

In fall 2023, Mexico's Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded the EJC a $3 million grant to administer the PDM, a program that provides legal assistance to Mexican nationals facing criminal charges or wrongful convictions in the United States. The program is essential to ensuring that Mexican nationals in the United States receive fair and effective legal representation in a political climate that is hostile to immigrants. The PDM is supported by the Directorate-General for Consular Protection and Strategic Planning, which oversees consular protection and legal assistance for Mexican nationals abroad.

In addition to the training sessions, Gurulé and Takeuchi met with Cristina Planter Riebeling, Undersecretary for North America at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Vanessa Calva Ruiz, Director General of Consular Protection and Strategic Planning.

“The PDM has attracted a high level of interest and attention within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” said Gurulé.

Planter Riebeling expressed strong support for the PDM and asked how her office could further support the program and help ensure its continued success. Gurulé said Planter Riebeling described the PDM as one of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' top priority programs.

Following the meeting, Planter Riebeling wrote, “The meeting provided an opportunity to highlight the important results achieved through the program and discuss next steps.” She also expressed appreciation for the “excellent collaboration” that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has developed with Gurulé and his team.

“I'm in regular communication with Director General Vanessa Calva Ruiz and her staff on the cases that we're accepting for legal representation, giving them updates on the progress that we're making,” said Gurulé.

During their visit to Mexico City, Gurulé and Takeuchi also met with Maria Mercedes Salmon, director of Notre Dame Mexico, and Dr. Imer Flores, research professor of law at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Faculty of Law, to discuss their support for the PDM.

Gurulé and Takeuchi met with Salmon to discuss the future of the PDM and Notre Dame Law School's growing presence in Mexico. “The PDM is one of the crown jewels of Notre Dame's presence in Mexico City,” Gurulé said.

Their meeting with Flores focused on ways to further strengthen the relationship between Notre Dame Law School and the UNAM Faculty of Law, particularly through the EJC's summer internship program. This summer, two UNAM students participated in the program on Notre Dame's campus.

“Overall, I thought it was a very productive visit,” said Gurulé. “In our short two-and-a-half-year relationship with the Directorate-General for Consular Protection and Strategic Planning, we've had a really substantial caseload. The PDM is really functioning. It's being fully implemented and operating on all cylinders.”