Immigrants sending cash back home will face strict new controls. Under the new rules,

"Anyone who sends money overseas now must be checked against government lists of suspected money launderers and terrorists, a task that also requires money transmitters %u2014 many of them storefront operations %u2014 to undergo training to spot suspicious movements of money."

Some of the new federal rules took effect this summer while others likely will be implemented in the next few months.

Many of the immigrants fear INS checks and reprisals. "Treasury Department officials, who administer the new federal regulations, have said people making ordinary transfers should not be worried. State Banking Department officials, however, began sharing money transfer information in March with the local office of the F.B.I. All names of customers are checked against lists of suspected criminals."

The new regulations may not be effective at catching terrorist money. The threshold reporting requirements that have been in place for many years were designed "to catch drug traffickers or criminal groups that have a lot of money to disguise or move quickly. Terrorist groups, investigators say, are more likely to move small amounts of money intermittently."