Donald Trump’s Border Wall: How Mexico Could Pay For It Revealed
The Donald Trump border wall that aided the Republican nominee in attaining the Presidency is expected to cost between $12-15 billion, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan.
For the last 18 months, the President has declared Mexico will pay for the wall in some form or fashion, though it was not clear — unless you were really listening during the campaign — how he would work that out.
As it turns out, there is a plan to pay for the Trump border wall, and Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. are not going to like it.
According to a report from Yahoo, the President is looking at U.S.-to-Mexico remittance payments as a primary revenue stream.
While nothing is confirmed at this time, Trump said of the wall in April of last year according to Yahoo Finance, that his administration could use “a U.S. anti-terrorism law to cut off certain money transfers from the United States to Mexico.”
Those “certain money transfers” Trump is referring to, via the Yahoo piece, include remittances from undocumented immigrants sending money back to their families in Mexico.
“Mexico does not believe in walls. I’ve said time and again: Mexico will not pay for any wall.”#Mexico #TrumpWall https://t.co/qLykFzYu2R
— Joe Madison (@MadisonSiriusXM) January 26, 2017
According to the piece, Trump referred to the remittances as “de facto welfare for poor families in Mexico,” observing from a World Bank review that many of the funds are in the U.S. illegally and that, according to the World Bank review, there were $24 billion in funds sent in such a manner in 2014 alone.
While immigration south of the border has receded some, according to a November 2015 Pew study, it is not clear whether remittances have decreased considering there is still a population of undocumented immigrants totaling around 11 million.
Dividing the $24 billion figure by the 11 million affected immigrants, the Trump border wall could essentially be paid for in one year’s time at an average of $2,182 per person.
If the Trump wall were paid out over the course of the president’s four-year term, the effect would essentially be a tax of $545.50 per year, per migrant through 2020.
While Mexico’s President insists the country will not be paying for any U.S. border wall, the tactic that President Trump has already suggested would essentially prove otherwise, especially now that Republican lawmakers are giving a more concrete ballpark estimate of what the structure will cost.
Trump’s tactic would almost certainly come under fire from pro-immigration and civil rights groups, but with the President planning to announce his “tie-breaking” U.S. Supreme Court Justice pick next week — and a Republican majority in the Senate likely to approve — the Trump wall and such a repayment plan are becoming more within the realm of plausibility.
Supporters of the wall also believe the Trump wall plans could be used to improve strained relations between the U.S. and Israel.
Israel company beneficiary of the bush-clinton-trump wall of México and Palestina, and mekorot water pic.twitter.com/8YR9YutBmz
— Sirio Serafín Samael (@samlit78) January 17, 2017
With a country more bitterly divided than ever, talk of the Trump wall is likely to dominate headlines for the next few months, which is about how long the president told reporter David Muir it would take to get plans together and mobilized.
But it does appear President Trump has some legally if not morally viable ways to pay for his border wall without breaking the campaign promise that Mexico would bear the brunt of the expense.
What do you think about the possibility of confiscating remittance funds from undocumented immigrants? Is it a shrewd business decision, a civil rights violation, or a little of both? Sound off in the comments section below.
[Featured Image by By Pietro Francesco Rizzato/ Shutterstock]
