Free Republic

This only caught my eye because some one I know is currently going through the immigration process in a legal manner... No free transfers for them though. There must be a sizable amount of banking business for BoA to offer this... something to think about.

BOYE, Mexico -- Clementina Arellano grew up with her six brothers in a shack in this dusty Mexican hamlet. Now 42, she's raising her sons in a spacious, 10-room mansion with Roman-style pillars at the doorway and a garden full of flowers and singing birds. How did she transform her fortunes so dramatically? By waiting tables and sweating in a furniture factory for about 10 years in Hickory, N.C., and sending home up to $500 a month. A couple of doors down, Berta Olgin, lives under a leaky roof, with skinny sheep gnawing at sparse patches of grass in her...

MAR. 30, 2006: CRAZY LIKE A FOX Follow the money: In 2005, Mexicans in the United States remitted some $20 billion home. That's 3% of Mexico's entire national income. Remittances have surpassed tourism, oil, and the maquiladora assembly industry to emerge as the country's top single source of foreign exchange. For the 6% of Mexican households that receive remittances, these funds can mean the difference between extreme poverty and an income roughly in line with the Mexican average. And as Mexico's economy has malperformed since 2000, remittances have become more essential than ever - not only economically, but politically. This...

Follow the money: In 2005, Mexicans in the United States remitted some $20 billion home. That's 3% of Mexico's entire national income. Remittances have surpassed tourism, oil, and the maquiladora assembly industry to emerge as the country's top single source of foreign exchange. ...

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Remittances sent home by Mexicans living abroad rose to US$20 billion (euro16.5 billion) in 2005, a 17 percent increase over the year before, the Bank of Mexico reported Tuesday. Remittances climbed by more than US$5.3 billion (euro4.4 billion) in the fourth quarter of 2005 alone, the bank said. They totaled US$16.6 billion (euro13.7 billion) in 2004. Remittances have been climbing steadily for years, surpassing the amount the country receives from tourism, which totaled US$10.7 billion (euro8.8 billion) in 2005.

MEXICO CITY — As more than 1 million immigrants living in the United States head south of the border for the holiday season, President Vicente Fox is warning that shakedowns by police or border guards won't be tolerated. Making what has become an annual pledge to protect immigrants, whom he refers to as "heroes," Fox is taking to the airwaves to remind the returning immigrants, known as paisanos, to report corrupt police, border guards and other officials. "My countrymen, I will personally make sure you get the treatment you deserve," Fox says in a series of public service announcements. "Welcome...

Washington, DC - The holidays are a time for families to share and celebrate together, regardless of the miles that may separate them. This also is the time of year when families send money back home to countries outside the United States. The U.S. Postal Service offers Dinero Seguro (Sure Money), providing customers with an affordable, convenient and safe method of transferring money internationally. Customers can send up to $2,000 per transaction per day, available in 2,800 participating Post Offices across the country. Identification is required for transfers exceeding $1,000. The system uses secure, electronic wire transfers between the Postal...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - International migrants send about $240 billion to their home countries yearly, a significant engine of growth for the world economy, the Global Commission on International Migration said Wednesday. But the 19-member independent panel said in a report that world governments have failed to take advantage of the enormous opportunities that result from such migration or to manage the challenges posed by the foreigners' arrival. The clearest finding from the commission's nearly two-year study is "the great importance in (economic) growth terms, and development terms, that is created out of migration," said Jan Karlsson, Sweden's former minister...

Bank Benefits Millions of Hispanics by Eliminating Transfer Fees LOS ANGELES, Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Bank of America today announced its free nationwide remittance service that is making it easier for millions of Hispanics to send money to Mexico by eliminating transfer fees. Called SafeSend(R), the new feature is available to anyone who has a Bank of America personal checking account. Earlier this year, Bank of America became the first major financial institution in the United States to offer free remittances when it introduced the product in Chicago. "We are proud to help millions of Hispanics send money for free...

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Despite increasing migration, money sent home to Mexico is almost all spent on bare necessities for migrants' families, with little left over for investment that could create new jobs, according to a government report released Friday. ADVERTISEMENT Levels of migration and remittances sent home by workers abroad have both risen in recent years, and that growth rate is accelerating, said Elena Zuniga, the head of Mexico's National Population Council The number of undocumented migrants leaving for the United States grew by 48 percent in the period 1993-1997, 63 percent from 1998 to 2001, and rose by...

Large Providers of FundsImmigrants and the Shipments of Money International flows of money no longer are simply the province of large international investors but also of modest immigrants, who cent by cent send resources to their families. Waiters, tradesmen and cleaning personnel who have emigrated to developed countries star in this new movement that has possibly sent 45 billion dollars to Latin America and the Caribbean in 2004.Remittances, a good businessThe remittances extensively are recognized as indispensable for the survival of millions of families and the welfare of many national economies in Latin America and The Caribbean", indicated the Multilateral...

Immigration: That "giant sucking sound" you hear isn't the jobs that Ross Perot warned we'd lose to Mexico due to NAFTA. It's from all the cash Mexico is collecting from illegals working on this side of the border. Funds sent home from Mexican immigrants, both legal and illegal, now outstrip revenues from foreign investors and tourism in Mexico (see chart). And "migradollars" are on course to surpass even revenues from Pemex, the state oil company, making them the country's largest source of income.

Migrants living in the US, Europe and elsewhere around the world sent a record amount of remittances - some $45 billion - to Latin America and the Caribbean last year, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The remittances - or money transfers - sent by Latin American and Caribbean workers living abroad rose nearly 20% over 2003, when $38 billion was sent home, the IDB said. About three-quarters of the remittances came from the US, while Europe was the second-largest source. Japan continued to be a major source of remittances to Brazil and Peru with foreign workers in Canada...

It's a 20% increment with respect to 2003. The region is the first destination for these transfers, according to the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB). According with the IADB, the 25 million Latin American and Caribbean emigrants, setled mainly in Europe and the United States, have made this region the first destination for money transfers in a global market that moves some $120 billions dollars a year. These 45 billion dollars surpass the sum of all direct foreign investment and foreign aid received by the region. Mexico was the main transfer receiver in the region, with more than 16 billion de...

SAN DIONISIO, Mexico - In this rural village, there is no industry, no paved roads, not even signs to tell visitors where it begins and ends. There are big houses, though, that wouldn't look out of place in West Valley City. Electricity, too, and indoor plumbing. And cell phones, even in the humblest of adobe-and-brick homes. But for Isidora Zaragosa, 62, all that progress cannot fill the void left by the young, sun-kissed men and women, including her children, who abandoned San Dionisio long ago. Like thousands of other Mexicans, most of them immigrated to the United States - particularly...

Mexican immigrants working in the United States are sending money south of the border to help fix roads or sidewalks, buy ambulances, set up scholarships, construct senior centers, restore downtown plazas or pay for various other community projects. For every charitable dollar sent to Mexico by immigrants who are members of civic groups and clubs in the United States, the Mexican government is matching the donation with three dollars. This is all done through Mexico's Three for One Initiative Program, which is under the Secretaria de Desarrollo Social, a Mexican federal agency. Friday, Martha Esquivel, a representative with the Secretaria...

Mexican remittances head for new record By John Authers Published: August 26 2004 03:00 | Last updated: August 26 2004 03:00 Remittances from Mexican migrant labourers are on course to set another record this year, according to the Bank of Mexico. Total second-quarter remittances reached $4.5bn (€3.7bn, £2.5bn) - an increase of 29.1 per cent over the second quarter 2003, according to a report by the bank. The numbers are likely to intensify competition among US banks for a share of the remittance market, which is seen as the best way to improve their marketing to Hispanics. Total remittances for...

According to the amendment made to paragraph 'a' in the first clause of Article 9 of the Código Fiscal de la Federación in México, the money transfers that Mexicans send to their country would be subject to federal taxation For example, this means that out of the $13.3 billion dollars that were sent last year to México, 35 percent ($4.6 billion) -- more or less the tax owed -- would have to be paid to the government.

Remittances are Mexico's biggest source of income, says Fox By Luis Alonso Lugo ASSOCIATED PRESS 8:51 p.m. September 24, 2003 NEW YORK ? Money sent from Mexican workers in the United States to their families back home has reached a record $12 billion in 2003, Mexican President Vicente Fox said Wednesday. Remittances "are our biggest source of foreign income, bigger than oil, tourism or foreign investment," Fox told reporters after a meeting with Mexican-American businessmen. "The 20 million Mexicans in the United States generate a gross product that is slightly higher than the $600 billion generated by Mexicans in Mexico,"...

MEXICO CITY Nearly one Mexican in five regularly gets money from relatives employed in the United States, making Mexico the largest repository of such remittances in the world, according to a poll sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank. The pollster, Sergio Bendixen, estimated that the payments help feed, house and educate at least a quarter of Mexico's 100 million people. The poll was part of a report on Monday by the bank, which said money sent home by all Mexican immigrants would soar to $14.5 billion this year, exceeding tourism and direct foreign investment to become this country's second most...