Immigrants Sue to Retrieve Funds Seized in Arizona

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.”