politics

Henry Cárdenas was on his way to Texas from Chicago when he got the news: Julión Álvarez’s work visa was cancelled, which meant the música mexicana hitmaker couldn’t enter the United States in time for his sold-out show at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on May 24. “We had everything set up already,” says Cárdenas, founder/CEO of the powerhouse Cárdenas Marketing Network, still perplexed by the situation. “The entire production, including labor and equipment, amounted to over $2 million dollars — it was all a complete loss because we had to postpone the event. It was unbelievable.”  

Álvarez — who in April made his grand return to the U.S. with a historic run at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium after being sidelined for eight years over since-cleared issues with the U.S. Treasury — was traveling from Guadalajara to Texas the day before the show and was informed at the airport that he couldn’t board the plane because his visa was cancelled. “I’ve been in the business for 45 years and I had never seen this,” Cárdenas adds. “In the past, we’ve known of groups or bands that apply [for a non-immigrant visa] and are denied but at least we were informed ahead of time. The day before your sold-out stadium show with 50,000 people? No way. We immediately started calling our lawyers but unfortunately, we haven’t gotten to the bottom of it. If you ask me right now what the reason for the cancelled visa is, I don’t know. Nobody knows.” 

In the past two months alone, at least a handful of regional Mexican acts — including Los Alegres del Barranco, Banda Cuisillos, Lorenzo de Monteclaro and, most recently, Grupo Firme — have shared a similar experience to that of Álvarez’s. Their work visas — it’s unclear if they are O-1 or P-1B visas — are either delayed in an “administrative processing” or outright revoked by the U.S. State Department, leading to postponed shows or cancelled festivals and performances. Such was the case for touring giant Firme, which was unable to perform at La Onda Fest in Napa Valley, Calif., on June 1. Chicago’s Michelada Fest, featuring Mexican music headliners Luis R Conriquez, Firme and Gabito Ballesteros, cancelled its two-day summer event over artist visa “uncertainty.” 

In general, U.S. visa uncertainties under the Trump administration have upended multiple communities and groups of people. “Everything is taking longer under Trump,” says attorney Daniel Hanlon, who specializes in immigration law. “It’s a combination of a few things, including stricter vetting policies, which have resulted in delays in visa processing almost across the board. We’re seeing this with foreign students at universities and now these musicians, and no one knows how it’s being brought to the attention of those who are in the position to make these revocation decisions, or why they are deciding to do this now. It could be completely politically motivated.” 

In an unprecedented move, Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau announced on X that the State Department had revoked Los Alegres del Barranco’s work visas after the group portrayed images “glorifying” drug kingpin “El Mencho” at a concert in Mexico in March. “In the Trump Administration, we take seriously our responsibility over foreigners’ access to our country. The last thing we need is a welcome mat for people who extol criminals and terrorists,” his post reads.  

Julión Álvarez performing during a concert at Arena Monterrey on October 29, 2021 in Monterrey, Mexico.

Medios y Media/Getty Images

In Mexico bans on narcorridos have spread across the country, where now 10 states have implemented laws to control or limit the diffusion of corridos in public spaces. But the U.S. had yet to really take a stance on the lyrics, which can be compared to gangster rap. That quickly changed this year when a wave of regional Mexican acts began to be impacted by visa delays, going beyond those who sing narcocorridos. Grupo Firme and Julión Álvarez — two of the biggest touring acts in the genre’s history, breaking barriers for regional Mexican artists in the U.S. — are mainly known for norteño and banda ballads and party songs, not narcocorridos particularly.  

“We don’t know what we are fighting against because we really don’t know the reason these visas are getting denied or revoked, and it seems like it’s no longer just because they sing narcocorridos, which is what they initially had said,” says Mariana Escamilla, vp at Promotores Unidos USA, a longstanding organization composed of promoters who specifically work the regional Mexican touring circuit. “People don’t have the confidence to buy tickets in advance anymore if the artist is coming from Mexico. That’s a huge problem because we rely on pre-sale to determine if an event is going to sell or not. Now, I think fans will wait until day-of to buy the ticket when they see that the artist has finally landed in the U.S.” 

Non-immigrant visas like O-1 and P-1B, the ones artists typically apply for “extraordinary achievement or ability,” are short-term work permits that need to be renewed by the artists and their petitioners and must include an agenda listing performances scheduled and where they’re performing every single time they apply. But even after being approved, these visas can be revoked at any time. Once the visa gets delayed by the State Department, for reasons like “administrative processing,” there’s no timeline for resolution. “It’s a euphemism for basically more background checks,” adds Hanlon. “It is unknown to the applicant what they are looking at, where they are looking or what they are looking for. They use that as a blanket to delay the processing of visas. So, the visa is refused until that’s resolved and then it could be issued or approved later but often it goes into a black hole and there’s nothing much you can do about it.” 

In a statement sent to Billboard, a spokesperson for the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in Mexico said, “Due to privacy and other considerations, and visa confidentiality, we generally do not comment on U.S. government actions with respect to specific cases. Continuous vetting and visa revocation actions are not limited to visa holders from any specific country or area in the world. All visa applicants and visa holders, no matter the visa type and where they are located, are continuously vetted.” 

What could be interpreted as targeting Mexican music and culture aligns with the Trump administration’s “disdain for Mexicans,” says entertainment attorney Marjorie García, partner at King, Holmes, Paterno & Soriano. “Any indication that [artists] are singing about anything the government doesn’t like, just like they [want to cancel] funding for PBS and NPR, if you’re not saying the things they want you to say, there is a perception that you don’t get to be here.”

Whether intentional or not, the timing couldn’t have been worse. In the past few years alone, regional Mexican has exponentially grown in popularity and global exposure. In 2023, Billboard reported that regional Mexican music consumption in the United States had jumped 42.1% year over year, outpacing gains in the Latin genre overall, as well as country, dance/electronic, rock and pop, according to Luminate.  

“The regional Mexican music movement can’t keep growing if its artists can’t tour the U.S.,” García says. “All aspects of our business will be impacted. Before, you could predict the length of time that you needed for the visa process; you had a window. But now, the visa is being pulled after it’s already given, and as you get closer to the show, and at that point, you either show up or pay. There’s no way you can plan for someone to cancel your visa. This is all going to have a chilling effect when artists voices are most needed and in demand.”  

Visa delays or revocations will almost certainly not fall under a contract’s force majeure clause, meaning event cancellation insurance very likely won’t cover it. “It’s up to individual artists to apply for those visas and get their documentation together. If the U.S. government says no, that’s almost assuredly not going to be covered by event cancellation insurance,” says attorney Tim Epstein, partner at Duggan Bertsch, who represents most of the independent events and festivals in North America, including Sueños and Baja Beach Fest. “Maybe once a year you were dealing with artists having to cancel concerts or festival performances over visa issues, but having a whole festival canceled because of artist visa issues … I have never seen that before.” 

The financial impact this will have on artists who can’t tour the U.S. will be long-lasting. “A group like Los Alegres del Barranco that has a large following in the United States and already had contracts signed there, it is devastating financially,” Luis Alvarado, spokesperson for Los Alegres del Barranco, tells Billboard. “It is obvious that there is some kind of movement against Los Alegres del Barranco, but also against musicians who play this genre of music (regional Mexican). We’re waiting first to clear the judicial process in Mexico and then begin a conversation with the U.S. government.”  

The U.S. is the No. 1 market to tour in — it’s the “base for success,” says Cárdenas. “You get guys like Firme and Julión who gross $10 million in one night here. This is where you make the big money — you don’t make the money in Mexico, with all due respect.” 

For now, Cárdenas is staying optimistic and working diligently to help resolve this issue. “There are thousands of people working at the stadium when a concert happens, from parking, to vendors, production staff, all kinds of occupations that didn’t make any money because the Julión show didn’t happen,” he says. “That weekend, we lost more than $2 million that we won’t recover. How many of these instances can we survive? If this was a small promoter, it would go out of business immediately. You can’t lose $2 million every weekend.  

“Someone has to go see the guys in Washington and tell them, ‘Listen, we have to fix this,’” Cárdenas continues. “This is not $100 or $200, this is millions of dollars; we have 50,000 people in one stadium. They consume everything — food, water, beer, and people are working, trying to make a dollar. Now, we’re talking to the political sector, calling our local congressmen and senators, and they are aware of the situation, and I’m sure they will fix it. Otherwise, this will jeopardize the entire industry.”  

Additional reporting by Tere Aguilera and Natalia Cano.