A group of House Republicans, led by Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Lou Barlette (R-PA), yesterday introduced a bill to fund President Trump’s border wall between the United States and Mexico. The bill would allow the U.S. government to collect billions of dollars by imposing a 2-percent fee on all the money that Mexicans and other immigrants send back home to their families by way of remittances.
“The bill is simple–anyone show sends their money to countries that benefit from our porous borders and illegal immigrants should be responsible for providing some of the funds needed to complete the wall,” Rep. Rogers said in a statement. “This bill keeps money in the American economy and most importantly, it creates a funding stream to build the wall.”
The World Bank puts remittances from the Untied States at more than $50 billion a year. A Pew Research Center analysis puts the figure at $133 billion in 2015. Mexico is one of the largest beneficiaries with $24 billion alone moving from the United States to its southern neighbor in 2015, making it one of Mexico’s top sources of income. China and India are the other countries in the top three in terms of remittances. Remittances also account for a large percentage of the economies of Central American countries.
The United States has one of the lowest costs to send money back home to relatives at about 6 percent of the payment. Canada’s rate is twice that, while the world’s other large economies hover around 8 percent.
