On Thursday, a group of House Republicans introduced the first bill to fund the Trump border wall. This bill will fund the wall AND Mexico will pay for it.
The money will be collecting a 2% tax on all money sent home by Mexicans as well as immigrants from other countries. There has been a wide rang of estimates regarding how much money this would generate, but it could go over $130 billion a year.
Per the Washington Times:
“This bill is simple — anyone who sends their money to countries that benefit from our porous borders and illegal immigration should be responsible for providing some of the funds needed to complete the wall,” Rep. Mike Rogers, Alabama Republican, said in a statement. “This bill keeps money in the American economy, and most importantly, it creates a funding stream to build the wall.”
Rep. Mike Rogers and Rep. Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania are leading the charge to get the wall funded.
One of the initial promises of Trump's presidential campaign was to "build the wall" and "have Mexico pay for it." All along, Mexico has promised they will not pay for the wall.
Initially, Trump has had trouble finding the funding for the wall. He has said that American taxpayers will have to pay for the wall for now, but he will be able to recover the money from Mexico in the long run.
This tax makes a lot of sense for many reasons. One of them being, the United States has one of the lowest costs in the world to send money home, at 6%. Canada's charge is double that. Many of the other big countries around the world run at about 8%.
Previously Trump threatened to raise fees on visa issued to Mexico, cancel visas or charge tariffs on Mexican good that are imported into the United States. These threats were looked at as a way to make Mexico "play ball" when it comes to paying for the border wall. The tax will be a much simpler bill and will not just collect money from Mexico.
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