Record $120 billion sent home to 3 top nations flooding US with illegal immigrants
Washington Examiner
March 20, 2019
Image: Washington Examiner
“The so-called “remittances” have been in the focus of some immigration reform advocates who want to tax the transfers. Proponents said that a tax on the money, some of which is collected under the table and outside payroll taxes, could help pay for President Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico.
Under one proposal that failed to pass Congress, remittances would be taxed 7 percent. Pew Research Center revealed in January that immigrants in the United States sent home $138 billion in 2016 alone. A 7 percent tax would raise nearly $10 billion, enough to fund building the wall in three years.”
“These huge numbers also suggest that the United States should follow the lead of Oklahoma, and start collecting a share of the remittances to help mitigate the costs of illegal immigration. You could build a wall with some of that money, compensate victims of illegal immigration, and much more – and Congress should do it,” said immigration expert Jessica Vaughan of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Money immigrants send home is a huge part of the economy of those three nations, reaching over 20 percent in El Salvador and Honduras. Over 90 percent of the remittances come from immigrants inside the United States, though a United Nations group said that the money comes from a total of over 100 countries. Read more here.
