Money sent back to Mexico by immigrants set a brand new record in 2017. And that impacts the American economy more than you might think.
That record number was 26 billion dollars in money sent 'home' so to speak. Steven Camarota with the Center for Immigration Studies tells KTRH a lot of it came from here.
“It’s a very safe bet that maybe more than 90% of this money was from the United States,” Camarota said.
So how does this impact the U.S. economy?
“That money is not here to stimulate the U.S. economy in the form of consumer demand. It can’t be taxed in the United Stated,” Camarota explained.
So what, if anything, can be done about it?
“What you could do if you wanted to help pay for border security or immigration enforcement is tax remittances. That is certainly possible. Plenty of places do it,” Camarota explained.
The 26 billion dollars sent to Mexico from immigrants last year is almost two billion dollars higher than the figure from 2016 and 97% of that came from wire transfers.