A bill in the Georgia Legislature that would charge illegal immigrants a fee for sending money abroad has drawn criticism in Atlanta and in Mexico. The Illegal Immigrant Fee Act, sponsored by state Rep. Tom Rice (R-Norcross), would charge illegal immigrants a 5 percent fee on the amount of money they send abroad in order to help pay for indigent health care in Georgia. The measure passed the House three weeks ago and must pass the Senate and be signed by the governor before it can become law. Rice said it's a way for illegal immigrants to pay for some of the millions they cost the state health care system.

But the office of Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Relations issued a news release last week calling the bill "unjust" and said it would discriminate against people of Hispanic origin in general and Mexicans in particular. Atlanta's consul general from Mexico says she'll monitor the bill and investigate legal options if it's passed.

Paul Garcia, CEO of Atlanta-based Global Payments, also disagrees with the bill. Global Payments is the parent company of Dolex, a wire transfer business with 42 locations in Georgia that sends money to Latin America. Garcia says his company will comply if the bill is passed, but says it should be up to the government, not business, to make sure people are in the country legally.

Mexican officials are concerned about the bill because Mexican immigrants sent about $16 billion back to their homeland in 2004. That inflow in foreign currency is second only to the amount Mexico earns from oil exports and is about equal to what the country makes from tourism, said Mexico's consul general in Atlanta, Remedios Gomez-Arnau.

Most earnings stay here

Immigrants in Georgia sent home $947 million to Latin America in 2004, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. That's more than any other state in the Southeast except Florida. But, Gomez-Arnau said, Mexican workers send home only about 20 percent of what they earn and spend 80 percent in Georgia.

"The first thing they do is to buy a car or a van," she said. "They spend money renting apartments here and on food and clothes. They constantly have to be paying a lot of traffic tickets because they can't drive legally," she said. When illegal immigrants are stopped for driving without a license, the fee can be $700, she said. "It's very expensive."

State Rep. Calvin Hill (R-Canton), who supports the legislation, said all legal taxpayers in Georgia pay about 6 percent of their income in state taxes, which in turn pay for social services. He sees nothing unfair about the bill. "We are giving people who are here illegally the opportunity to participate," Hill said. "And that would include anyone of any race, color, creed or nationality who is not here legally," he said. "If someone wants to call that discrimination, that's their prerogative," Hill said. "I consider it justice."

Garcia, of Global Payments, says his employees could comply with the bill better than other wire transfer companies that rely on agents in supermarkets and convenience stores to send the money. That's because he could train his employees, while other companies would have to train an agent who has many other responsibilities besides doing wire transfers.

He says the bill would place a stigma on any customer who isn't native-born. "Or even if you are native-born, if you are perceived as being different from what is considered mainstream," Garcia said. "Unless you're an American Indian, we're all immigrants, either willing or unwilling," Garcia said.

Global Payments is a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange with a market capitalization of $4 billion. It employs 500 people in its Sandy Springs headquarters. The company is the parent of Dolex, based in Arlington, Texas, which transfers money for Latinos in the United States, Spain, Belgium and the United Kingdom to Latin America. Mexico is the largest recipient of transfers, Garcia said.

Dolex has 800 locations across the United States and represents around 12 percent of Global Payments' business, with revenues of about $94 million in 2005. Garcia says his company is in a good position to comply with the law if it's passed because Dolex uses its own employees and can train them to ask for the correct documents. Because the business is focused on sending money to Latin America, chances are employees would have to familiarize themselves with immigration documentation only from that area. Also, most Dolex employees speak Spanish and the transactions are done in Spanish, Garcia said.

That differs from Western Union, for example, which transfers money worldwide and many times uses agents rather than direct employees. "We can pull up every Dolex transaction you've done in the last few years," Garcia said. "If you're a bad guy, we're the last place you'd want to go to try to launder money."

Undergoing scrutiny

Wire transfer companies already must verify the identity of anyone who sends more than $3,000 abroad, Garcia said. "You have to go through a tremendous amount of scrutiny to understand who the individual is," Garcia said. Dolex goes one step further and verifies ID for anyone sending $1,000 or more. The company will also verify ID if it feels someone is sending a series of smaller sums to get around the $3,000 limit. Garcia worries, Dolex might be at a disadvantage because it could comply with the law.

"I would really be concerned with how they would police compliance and create a level playing field between companies like ours that has its own employees and other companies that use agents," Garcia said. Another area of the Georgia bill that Garcia says is unworkable is the section that says wire transfer companies can't allow someone to transfer money on behalf of someone else. For example, a legal resident couldn't transfer money for an illegal immigrant, the bill says.

Rice, the bill sponsor, says his intent was to make it a crime for someone to take money from illegal immigrants and send it abroad for a fee. "My guess is there would be people who spring up under this bill and say give me your money and I'll do it for you," Rice said. "They're making money by doing it." Rice acknowledges it would be difficult for wire transfer companies to determine whether the cash presented belonged to the person at the window, or to illegal immigrants. "I don't have a clue how I would know if you are sending money on behalf of another party," Garcia said. "I understand, truly, there is a concern that there are people here illegally who are using services and are not paying a fee for those," Garcia said.