In early January 2018, the Banco de México (Mexico’s Federal Reserve equivalent) announced that remittances to Mexico from Mexicans abroad (nearly all in the United States) hit an historic high in calendar year 2017.
From January to November of 2017, the total remittance sum sent to Mexico was
26,167,000,000 dollars. That 26 billion dollar plus amount is a 6.15 percent increase over the January-November period of 2016.
Remittances are also sent to Central American countries by Central Americans working in the United States, and form a bigger share of those nations’ GDPs than do remittances to Mexico.
For the entire article, click here.
Article by Allan Wall, published on VDARE.COM, January 23rd, 2018.
NOTE: In the article as I originally wrote it, I only discussed the possibility of taxing remittances to pay for the wall, but in the editing process an exhortation by me to tax remittances actually became part of the title. I think building a wall (or better yet an Israeli-style fence) would be worth it if it were simply paid for by the U.S. Treasury. Of course I can’t imagine the Mexican government every paying for it. On the other hand, taxing remittances is doable and would be a way of, in a sense, charging Mexico (through its people) for the wall (although the money would actually come from American employers!)
The Mexican government couldn’t stop that, and the only way to try to stop it would be to tell its people not to send remittances! Anyway, they need to get the border fenced off, regardless of who pays for it!
Tags: Central American Immigration, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Hugo Martinez, Nicaragua, Remittances, TPS ("Temporary Protected Status)