The use of yellow color filters for Mexico began with the film Traffic in 2000. To allow the audience to easily distinguish between the film’s three storylines, Traffic’s director and cinematographer Steven Soderbergh used various optical effects to give all three plots a distinctive visual style. The most notable of these was the Mexico storyline, where Soderbergh used tobacco filters to tint the image yellow.
TIL it’s that new
I remember it was most prominent in CSI Miami to show that it was Miami. Tropical climate as shown on TV.