A plan to have Mexico pay for the not-yet-built border wall has been floated around President Donald Trump’s administration for weeks now.
Trump announced that he may impose a 20 percent tax on all products from Mexico to quickly pay for the wall, without American taxpayers being directly hit with the expected $10 to $14 billion cost.
David North, an immigration expert with the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) says he has a solution that would entail illegal immigrants living in the U.S. actually footing the bill. Under North’s proposal, he argues that by shuttering programs which federally fund illegal immigrants, nearly $1 to $3 billion could be shored annually, paying for the wall in potentially less than a decade.
“Put a 2 percent fee on all outgoing remittances,” North writes. “The rate is low enough to discourage alternative ways of sending money to the homelands, and the paper created will give IRS good leads for collecting unpaid income taxes.”
North also cites terminating the ruling which allows families with illegal immigrant family members obtain food-stamps, getting rid of the Additional Child Tax Credit for children who do not have Social Security numbers, mostly because their parents are illegal immigrants, and charge individuals a going-rate to enter the U.S. from Mexico.
North writes that a small 25 cents fee imposed on individuals entering the country from Mexico, and an additional $1 for a vehicle and $5 for a bus, could create revenue to pay for the southern border wall.
“None of these proposals would depress the Mexican economy, all would help fund the wall, and most would have absolutely no impact on the vast majority of American taxpayers, and all (but the crossing fees) would encourage illegal aliens to return home,” North writes.
John Binder is a contributor for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.