PHOENIX — Diving deeper into accusations that a secret database, compiled by the state of Arizona, was tracking anyone sending money to or from Mexico through wire transfers.
The people affected by what the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling an illegal financial surveillance system are now speaking out.
It’s a system that tracks those making wire money transfers that exceed $500.00 dollars made through Western Union, Moneygram, and similar companies from Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas, to and from Mexico.
ABC15 spoke exclusively to Rich Lebel, the Executive Director of the Transaction Record Analysis Center -- known as TRAC.
TRAC keeps a massive surveillance database with at least 145 million records of personal data from these wired money transactions.
“We're detecting money laundering,” Lebel told ABC15.
The data comes from Western Union, Money Gram, and similar companies, by request of the Arizona Attorney General's office, flowing into TRAC.
Data that’s to be used by police agencies across the country.
Lebel says they used to do a lot of human smuggling cases, but now the majority is fentanyl smuggling.
He says the criminal organizations are sometimes in cahoots with an employee behind the counter to wire drug proceeds back, south of the border.
“In the past five years, we've either assisted with investigations that have been confirmed, or ongoing, or we highly suspect are complicit agent locations. About 362 stores, as of about a month ago, around the United States,” said Lebel.
Plenty of people have been put into this database without their knowledge.
ABC15 also exclusively spoke to those directly affected.
For many, wiring money is simply about supporting loved ones across the border.
Those we talked to say, this whole system is a breach of trust.
“It’s very uncomfortable to know that you’re being watched,” a man told ABC15.
This man didn't want his name shared but says many in the undocumented community, such as himself, use wire transfers to send money home.
He says it’s because they can't use other services that require a good credit score
“I work hard not only to support my family (back home), but also to better this country. By doing that they’re making us feel like criminals. It’s an abuse of trust and power.”
Lebel says courts have ruled people using Money Service Businesses don't have the same financial privacy protections as people using traditional banks.
Even so, he says the program was created to limit the number of legitimate users.
“Law enforcement and Western Union wasn't interested in providing data or seeing data that's related to family maintenance remittances that are being sent by families living up here who are sending money to Mexico; the majority of those are below $500, in the $300 to $400 range. The state was only interested in seeing transactions that might be criminal in nature,” said Lebel.
The ACLU, which obtained records about this program, calls it an invasion of privacy saying the millions of records obtained were done so illegally, through what they call a warrantless program.
However, Arizona's new Attorney General, Kris Mayes, is defending the program.
Her office calls it an effective crime-fighting tool.
The Mexican Consulate in Phoenix provided this statement to ABC15:
We will remain attentive to the subject and the commonplaces presented in this case and cautious about the results, as well as if any action or overreach affects Mexican nationals. We trust in the US executive and judiciary channels to review the operation of this process and take the necessary actions to fulfill its duties.
Consul General Jorge Mendoza Yescas
