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 Editorials | Issues | October 2006 
Mexican Lawmakers Attack Arizona's Interception of Money Transfers from Migrants
 Associated Press
| | "Mexico is a partner in the fight against drug trafficking, money laundering and people smuggling, but the battle against organized crime should not target thousands of poor people." |
Mexico Mexican lawmakers on Tuesday passed a resolution denouncing Arizona's plan to intercept money transfers to Mexico, a measure they said could harm hundreds of families who depend on remittances.
The resolution, approved by the lower house of Congress, also urges President Vicente Fox's government to closely watch the money seizures and insure the rights of migrants are not being violated.
In September, a U.S. judge gave the Arizona Attorney General's office permission to intercept funds wired through Western Union from 29 U.S. states, including Arizona, to the Mexican state of Sonora. The move was an expansion of a five-year old program to intercept money transferred to drug and migrant smugglers in the Phoenix metropolitan area. The program was extended after criminals allegedly rerouted the transfers to Sonora, on the Arizona border.
A U.S. migrant-rights group and Western Union, however, filed lawsuits to fight aspects of the program causing an Arizona state judge to temporarily halt the interceptions to Sonora pending a hearing.
The Sonora-Arizona corridor is the busiest crossing point for undocumented migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Illegal migrants do not typically carry large amounts of cash, preferring to have friends and relatives send money to smugglers for payment once crossings are made.
Congressman Gerardo Aranda, of Fox's National Action Party, said Mexico is a partner in the fight against drug trafficking, money laundering and people smuggling but added that the battle against organized crime should not target thousands of poor people.
"It's worrisome how this fight is affecting thousands of innocent people who need the money sent by their relatives in the United States," Aranda said.
Last year, Mexican migrants sent home more than $20 billion (€16 billion) in remittances, the country's second leading source of foreign income after oil. In the first eight months of 2006, remittances rose by nearly 20 percent over the same period last year, according to figures released by the Mexican Central Bank earlier this month.
Congressman Jose Ramirez, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, said migrants are already getting charged commissions of up to 25 percent of the money transferred and seizing their funds is another example of how migrants are increasingly being treated like criminals.
"They suffer from financial exploitation and now from fiscal persecution," Ramirez said. "We can't allow this under any circumstances." |
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