Florida governor plans to prevent illegal migrants from making money transfers

FM Fonseca says about 96 Belizeans are in ICE detention 

BELIZE CITY, Fri. Feb. 7, 2025

Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis has announced multiple actions that he will be taking as part of an effort to deter migrants from heading to the United States. Among them is an undertaking that has many people concerned. During a press conference on January 23, three days after Republican Donald Trump took office as president of the United States, DeSantis declared that they would introduce a policy in Florida that would make illegal migrants unable to make money transfers. This would deliver a targeted blow to the flow of remittances.

DeSantis declared, “People will come illegally because they can work more menial tasks but make a lot more money in the U.S. than they can in, like, a third world country. So, they’ll come, make money, and then they send money back in remittances to their family, friends – wherever – to the home country. We are going to impose ID verification for foreign remittances … The money transfer company’s gotta run you through to make sure that you are lawfully able to be in the country and to send money outside of our country. That will be a huge deterrent for people coming to the state of Florida illegally.” He then added that he believes “the Trump Administration is going to do something on remittances, but I think they may need Congress to do some of that; and who knows whether Congress will ever do anything, so we have an opportunity to do it here in Florida.”

On January 15, prior to Trump taking office, DeSantis had outlined all proposals to combat illegal migration in the state. The one-page statement read, “With President Trump taking office, Florida has a unique opportunity to help facilitate the end of America’s immigration crisis.”

It has been pointed out that the Belizean diaspora is concentrated primarily in certain parts of Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, and that the respective states which are considered blue states would be unlikely to support such policies. And, as DeSantis himself shared, what he is proposing is a state initiative in Florida, and there are no federal plans at this time to implement such a policy countrywide. There are also questions about policing such a policy and workarounds that people could find. Nonetheless, the change bears watching.

In the case of Belize, according to Central Bank of Belize figures, from January 2024 to September 2024, remittances were estimated at $222.3 million. For 2024 alone, the remittances from the U.S. were estimated to be $188 million. Below is a table of remittances to Belize from the U.S. dating back to 2014.

Notably, though, Belize’s remittances figures are negligible compared to those of some other countries. For example, for Guatemala, the remittances they receive are in the billions. In 2023, according to the IDB, remittances to Guatemala were estimated at US$19.804 billion, whereas Honduras received US$9.177 billion for the same year.

Does the Belize Government know how many Belizeans are awaiting deportation from the U.S.?

On Wednesday, February 5, Foreign Minister Hon. Francis Fonseca told Amandala that based on information they have received, about 96 Belizeans are in custody of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He added that separately, there are some 891 Belizeans who have been given orders of removal, and who are described as “non-detainees” because they are not yet in custody, either because they did not return for a scheduled court appearance, or some other reason. A few days ago, a list had circulated of the number of people who are set to be deported from the U.S. by country. In the case of Belize, the figure was 899. Minister Fonseca, who met with the new U.S. Chargé d’Affaires, David Hodge on February 3, said the U.S. official did not confirm any figures but added that the figure of 891 is credible.

We note that statistics from the ICE website show that between October 2020 and September 2024, a total of 320 Belizeans had been arrested. The criminality cited were immigration violations, convictions or pending arrests. The website reveals that for 2021 there were 48 arrests; for 2022 there were 83; for 2023 there were 98; and for the first 9 months of 2024, there were 91 arrests.

The following table from the ICE website reflects the arrests of Belizeans per area of responsibility for the period cited.