The Challenge of Tracking Money Sent to Other Countries from Immigrants Josh Siegel - The Daily Signal
go to original February 28, 2016

Mexico gained more money from remittances than from oil sales in 2015 (CCTV America)

Two recent reports by the federal government’s watchdog shed light on one of the more overlooked elements of immigration to the United States: the money migrants send to the country from which they came.

The U.S. is the largest source of these money transfers sent overseas by foreign-born residents, known as remittances, with an estimated $54.2 billion sent from this country in 2014, according to the World Bank. The World Bank has estimated remittance outflows will reach $586 billion in 2015 and grow another 4.1 percent in 2016.

While developing countries such as Mexico, India and the Philippines have come to depend on these funds as a steady source of incoming money, and a boon to their economies, some politicians are seeking to limit remittances as a way to discourage illegal immigration, and to punish people already living here illegally who seek to send their wages to family overseas.

...Under the legislation, people who can’t prove they are here legally would be fined an amount equal to seven percent of the value they are transferring, excluding fees that are already applied for users of remitting services.

The money from those fines would go to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help it pick up the costs of enforcing the legislation, and any leftover funds would be sent to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to help the agency secure the border.

Read the rest at The Daily Signal

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