Since many "immigrants" regularly send money back home by wire transfer, some GOP House members are kicking around the idea of tacking an additional 2% fee on all such international transfers which are known as remittances.
The U.S. has one of the lowest costs to send money home, at about 6 percent of the payment. Canada’s rate is twice that, while the world’s other big economies hover around 8 percent.
The World Bank puts remittances from the U.S. at more than $50 billion a year. A Pew Research Center analysis puts the figure at $133 billion in 2015.
At present, Mexico rakes in around $24 billion a year in remittances, more of which figure as big percentages of other Latin American economies as well.
The congressmen estimate that an additional 2% fee would bring in over $2 billion a year, which could be directed toward enhanced border security. Additional border sensors, for example; you could purchase and install a heck of a lot more sensors and cameras at $2 billion a year. Trump's Wall seems needlessly expensive and unlikely to succeed, especially as Mexicans seem to be excellent tunnel-builders.
