DNC Chairman Tom Perez plans fundraising trip to Mexico amid party’s money woes

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is planning an upcoming fundraising trip to Mexico City, where he will court donations from Americans living abroad.

Bloomberg reported that Perez's trip will include three events in the city on Saturday, Sept. 28. These events include a happy hour where the cost of admission is $50 for an attendee or $25 for students with an ID, as well as a dinner that offers $1,000 "Supporter" tickets and $15,000 "Champion" level tickets.

A DNC spokesperson confirmed Perez's attendance at the events to Bloomberg.

The fundraising events are open to American citizens and legal permanent residents and the online registration requires that participants provide either passports or green card numbers to verify their status. It is illegal, after all, for foreign nationals to donate to American political campaigns.

The U.S. State Department says that 1.5 million American citizens currently live in Mexico. The 2015 numbers from the Mexican government show that over 90 percent of Americans living in the country don't have their immigration status in order.

This won't be the first time that Perez has had to break out his passport for international donor events. He spoke at an April 2018 event in London to raise money for a program to help register American voters abroad for the midterm elections.

The Mexico trip comes as the DNC is lagging behind its Republican counterpart in fundraising. FEC numbers show the DNC with lower intake and spending numbers and substantially lower cash on hand amounts than the RNC for the current year through last month.

The DNC also had raised less in March of this year than it had at the same point in 2015. By contrast RNC took in more than twice as much money as the DNC in June and just announced a record-breaking $21 million haul for the month of July.