http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/pol ... 014491.htm

Posted on Sat, Mar. 04, 2006


Mexican government gears up for fight over state immigration proposals

By Giovanna Dell'Orto
ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA - The Mexican government has denounced bills in Georgia and Arizona that would tack a surcharge on wire transfers from illegal immigrants, instructing its consulates to consider "legal actions" should the proposals become law.

The Mexican Foreign Relations Department's statement, released Thursday, is the latest the country has lodged against legislation it deems "discriminatory toward people of Hispanic origin in general, and Mexican nationality in particular." Mexico's basic stance is that illegal immigration wouldn't be the problem it is if the United States didn't have a strong demand for workers and if more visas existed for the kind of jobs - in construction, agriculture, hospitality - that illegal immigrants tend to fill. While it's common for governments to advise its citizens living abroad of their rights, election-year politics - both in the United States and Mexico - translate into more heated rhetoric and more public positions, said Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

Mexican officials say the migrant work force in the United States benefits both countries - filling a labor need in the United States and sending money home to their families back in Mexico. However, proponents of immigration control argue illegal immigrants are draining state coffers, even though there is no way to measure how much states spend on the government services that illegal immigrants can receive, such as emergency health care and K-12 education.

Georgia's "Illegal Immigrant Fee Act," which the state House passed last month and now goes to the Senate, requires wire-transfer customers to show proof that they are in the United States legally or be charged a 5 percent fee on transfers. The money collected would go to "indigent care programs," as worded in the bill.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Tom Rice, R-Peachtree Corners, said the point of the measure is to help offset the state's costs of serving illegal immigrants. Opponents of the proposed legislation argue that the surcharge would push immigrants to find more dangerous ways to send money home, making them likely victims of theft and fraud.

Remittances from Mexican immigrants in the United States amounted to more than $16 billion in 2004, according to Mexico's central bank, giving the nation its second-biggest source of foreign currency after oil exports.

In Georgia, 81 percent of Hispanic immigrants send money home more than once a month, for a total of $947 million in 2004, according to the Inter-American Development Bank, an international lending organization. The average remittance is $255.