Sheinbaum signs a bar on dual nationals running for president

From 2028, a dual national cannot stand for president or governor

President Claudia Sheinbaum signed a constitutional decree on Wednesday that bars dual nationals from running for president, for state governor, or for mayor of Mexico City. She said at her morning press conference: "Today we signed the decree. No president or governor may hold dual citizenship." The text changes articles 82, 116 and 122 of the Constitution. It is due to be published in the Diario Oficial de la Federacion.

The reform applies from the 2028 election cycle. A candidate who wants those offices from then on must hold only Mexican nationality, and must renounce any other citizenship before registering. Next year's midterms, which include some governorships, are unchanged. People who hold a second passport and do not seek those offices keep it. Sheinbaum has stressed that the decree is not a general ban on dual nationality.

She proposed the change in late August and defended it as a guard against foreign interference. Morena and its allies passed it with a qualified majority in Congress and secured the required state legislatures. Opponents say the move cuts against the rights of Mexicans who migrated, took citizenship in the United States or elsewhere, and might have returned to stand. They also note that the Constitution already sets nationality rules for the top offices.

Who is in the frame, and who is not

The offices named are specific: the presidency, the governorships, and the Mexico City executive. Seats in Congress, mayoralties outside the capital, and the civil service are outside the new bar. A dual national can still vote, still hold a lower office, and still keep the second passport. The cost appears only at the point of registration for the three named jobs, and only from 2028.

That timing is the political fact. The next presidential election is in 2030. The 2028 marker means the rule is in force for the Congress and governorships elected that year, and for any presidential hopeful who would need to have shed a second nationality before the 2030 registration window. Sheinbaum's critics say the design is aimed at opposition figures who hold a second citizenship. The decree text does not name a person. It names a status.

Reuters reported the reform taking effect on Wednesday, in the sense of publication and signature, with application from 2028. Excelsior reported the same signature and the same articles. The two accounts agree on the offices and the start year. They do not publish a count of how many current or likely candidates hold a second passport. That count is the missing number.

What a candidate would have to do

Renunciation is not a slogan. A candidate with US citizenship would have to complete the US State Department process for losing nationality, which requires an oath abroad and a finding that the act was voluntary and with intent. Mexican electoral authorities would then have to decide what proof they will accept at registration. The decree does not set that evidentiary rule. The National Electoral Institute will have to write it before 2028.

Until that rule exists, the operative sentence is Sheinbaum's: from 2028, anyone who wants to be president, governor, or Mexico City mayor can only be Mexican. Dual nationality survives for everyone else.

The publication step

A constitutional amendment in Mexico is not in force because a president has signed a folder. It is in force when the decree is printed in the Diario Oficial. Sheinbaum said that publication would come on Wednesday. Until the issue number and the page are public, the signature is the political act and the gazette is the legal act. Excelsior reported both the signature and the plan to publish the same day.

The articles being changed do different jobs. Article 82 sets who can be president. Article 116 covers the states, which is why governors fall under the decree. Article 122 covers Mexico City, which is why the capital's executive is named separately from the governors. A reader who only remembers the press-conference line will miss that three articles had to move to catch three offices.