News » November 8, 2006

Immigrants Sue to Retrieve Funds Seized in Arizona

Immigrants sue to retrieve fudns seized by Arizona state government.

By Kari Lydersen

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard

When Illinois truck driver Javier Torres sent $1,000 via Western Union to a friend in Arizona to pay for a car he’d purchased from her, it seemed like the money just disappeared. The same thing happened to North Carolina resident Alma Santiago when she sent $2,000 to her cousin in Arizona so he could visit family. Likewise for Lia Rivadeneyra, who sent $500 to her brother when he was visiting Sonora, Mexico, from his home in Peru.

Several weeks after each sent their money, they found out it had been seized by Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, on suspicion that it was intended for “coyotes,” human or drug smugglers. While smuggling across the Arizona border has certainly become an increasingly profitable and violent trade, the only “evidence” Goddard’s office had linking the monies sent by Torres, Santiago and Rivadeneyra to these crimes was that the amounts were over $500 and came from one of 26 states identified in a broad search warrant targeting wire transfers through Western Union and other companies.

“They said they think I sent money for illegal drugs or a coyote,” says Torres. “They were treating me like a criminal.”

His money was among the $17 million seized by Goddard’s office in recent years under similar circumstances. On October 18, Torres, Santiago and Rivadeneyra filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Arizona, alleging that Goddard and his staffer Cameron Holmes violated constitutional protections against unlawful search and seizure. The lawsuit also charges that the attorney general violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by interfering with interstate and international commerce; the office had also seized funds destined for Sonora, Mexico, and funds transferred between other states by people who had previously made transfers involving Arizona.

For many of the victims, the lawsuit is the only chance they have of getting their money back. When Rivadeneyra talked to Arizona state police, they told her she couldn’t recover the money unless they interviewed her brother, which was impossible since he lives in a rural village without a phone. Officers told Torres he would need to show the car title and registration to recoup his funds, also impossible since he had already sold the car for some extra cash. He ended up having to send another $1,000 to his friend, this time through the postal service.

The lawsuit resulted from an investigation launched by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the Instituto del Progreso Latino in Chicago. Among the allegations in the lawsuit are that the state of Arizona never adequately notified senders or receivers that the money had been seized, or advised them of their right to challenge the seizure. The investigation turned up 400 specific individuals who had lost money by setting up a toll-free number. There are believed to be up to 15,000 potential plaintiffs.

Meanwhile, Western Union also has a lawsuit pending, which has resulted in a temporary freeze on seizures. A statement from Goddard on the Arizona Attorney General Web site says that coyotes have made $1.7 billion on smuggling monies through Western Union and other wire services, but doesn’t say how it was proven that all this money was meant for coyotes, and his office declined to comment further. Doubtless a significant amount of money is sent to Arizona to pay coyotes; under the current immigration system, they are often the only way for Latin American immigrants to come to the United States.

Goddard’s Web site says the office has worked with community groups to help innocent people get their money back. According to Hoyt, the Attorney General’s office told the ICIRR that only 9 percent have had their money returned.

Many see the seizures as a shocking abuse of power against an extremely vulnerable population: non-English speakers and undocumented immigrants who are wary of any contact with authorities and therefore more likely to absorb the loss than complain. “He can get away with it because the last names are Salgados and Lopezes, and he makes sure people are intimidated enough that they don’t take the next step,” says ICIRR board president Juan Salgado.

Remittances sent from immigrants in the United States are a staple of the economies of many Latin American countries, including Mexico, where they are considered the second largest foreign source of income after oil exports. Since undocumented or transient people in the United States or poor people in Latin America are unlikely to have regular bank accounts, wire transfers are often the only secure option for sending money. And the $500 Rivadeneyra sent to her brother in Peru is a lot there; it could be one man’s livelihood for months.

Robin Hoover, a Tuscon pastor who runs the Humane Borders program which places water in the desert for migrants, says he is appalled at the attorney general’s conduct. “This is unlawful government seizure,” Hoover says. “We fought a revolutionary war over that!”

Matthew Piers, the plaintiff’s attorney, says his clients agree that the monetary flow to drug smugglers must be stopped. However, he notes that “the government must always act within the bounds of the Constitution, otherwise it creates rather than prevents lawlessness. This is the equivalent of knowing a bank was robbed, seeing the robber run into the Daley Center, and arresting everyone there.”

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• Reader Comments

  The following quotes from this article make it pretty clear what the remedy is.

  • “They said they think I sent money for illegal drugs or a coyote,” says Torres. “They were treating me like a criminal.”

  • Doubtless a significant amount of money is sent to Arizona to pay coyotes; under the current immigration system, they are often the only way for Latin American immigrants to come to the United States.
  • Many see the seizures as a shocking abuse of power against an extremely vulnerable population: non-English speakers and undocumented immigrants who are wary of any contact with authorities and therefore more likely to absorb the loss than complain.

  • Remittances sent from immigrants in the United States are a staple of the economies of many Latin American countries, including Mexico, where they are considered the second largest foreign source of income after oil exports.
  This looks like a good incentive to come in legally or not at all. (Of course they could ask the Coyote for a refund.)

  Posted by whattheheck on Nov 9, 2006 at 6:10 PM

  WTH,

  People have been trying to put their miserable hands of these hardworkin’ good folks out of resentment for a long time. I say back off!! Most ot these people are law abiding hardworking G-d fearin’ folks whose only crime is impatience with the immigration system. Big Deal. They don’t use more services than other people and they don’t commit more crime. Stop reading Barb Coe’s racist newsletter. The illegals that commit crimes are the same gangster thugs from Tihajauna who running over the border to pursue criminal activity and who have no intention of staying here. They don’t represent the vast majority of migrants who are here to work.

  We should be a bilingual nation like Canada. We would be a better educated and more tolerant society if all forced to learn two languages. Perhaps this is precisely why the right resists it. The consequent enlightened political effects would utterly devastate them. Here in Chicago, a quite diverse place, I run across European businessmen who speak upwards of six different languages. They are generally no liberals but can’t understand why we aren’t an officially bilingual society-English and Spanish. To them its a no brainer. Nobody from the outside gets the “English only” attitude. I guess its just another facet of our egocentric cretinism.

  Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Nov 19, 2006 at 8:31 PM

  Cabby in Chi,

  It is probably a big deal to all the people who are following the legitimate process for immigration — No es verdad?

  When a person is cutting into the line it is not wise to bitch about someone else’s bad behavior.

  Never heard of Barb Coe.

  Posted by whattheheck on Nov 21, 2006 at 10:45 PM

  It is often forgotten that people who cross illegally go through incredible hardship. Moreso than the one’s who cross legally.  They have breached the law to be sure. It isn’t really the right thing to do. But it is no excuse to steal their money. My understanding is that most of the real vindictive rage against illegals, who are coming here in lower numbers that they were ten years ago, is coming from the deep south (excluding Texas and Florida) where illegal immigration is hitting Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama,  and Tennessee.  I should have figured these nice Christian folks would vent their maniacal rage at the very sight of someone “racially” different. Southern Xenaphobia strikes again.

  Posted by cabdriverinchicago on Nov 22, 2006 at 10:02 PM

  cabdriver,

  This not just addressed to you, but your latest comments reminded me of something I have been aware of for some time.

  The overall thrust of the articles on this site…

  • Negative (I know nearly all media reporting is of bad news, but these are overwhelmingly editorializing with an anti-bias.)

  • Blame is a central theme. Who to blame is variable — Bush, the U.S., society in genral, Christianity, government, whites, the rich… seldom the individual.

  • Going hand in hand with the above is — generalization, insinuation and guilt by association.

  Your comments:

  Generalize about those who come here illegally. I know they go through hardship — they pay a high fee to the Coyote, suffer the long walk or a risky ride and the anxiety must be high the whole time.  But…they are at least as mixed a group as any other. 

  They are costing the taxpayers a lot of hidden expense.

  Money sent back to Mexico is second only to oil income as a part of their GDP.

  Several hospitals in areas with concentrations of illegals as emergency patients have had to close. (One as far north as New Jersey)

  Locally we are experiencing shootings between rival Hispanic gangs. Legal aid is provided at our expense to many.

  There are others, but you get the idea.  They are just people and some are good, many are hard workers, but their illegal entry leaves them all open to exploitation of many kinds.

  I don’t know that any particular geographical area is more vindictive, but why would you immediately assume that even if it is in the south it is Christians?  Why would it be labeled as xenophobia to be in favor of law enforcement at our borders?

  If a stranger (our several) slipped into your house one night wouldn’t you want the law against breaking and entering enforced? How about if fewer were coming in than ten years ago?

  Don’t let this depressing blame laden site override your objectivity.

  Posted by whattheheck on Nov 24, 2006 at 3:04 PM

• extended discussion >>>Continued...

  Discussions with more than 5 comments are continued on our special discussion page to encourage continuity and ease of use. There are currently 11 posts.

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