Donald Trump has announced he would force Mexico to pay for a  wall at the border by threatening to cut off billions of dollars in remittances sent by immigrants living in the United States.

A snarky Obama scolded Donald Trump on his plan:

“The implications in regards to ending remittances, many of which by the way are from legal immigrants, and are from individuals who are sending money back to their families, are enormous. First of all, they’re impractical… The notion that we’re going to track every Western Union bit of money that is being sent to Mexico, uh, good luck with that. Then we got the implications for the Mexican economy. Which in turn if it is collapsing sends more immigrants north because they can’t find jobs back in Mexico.”

Of course, Barack Obama is wrong about this, too.

The US already cuts off remittance payments to Somalia.
US News reported:

Following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Congress passed stricter money-laundering regulations, which caused several large U.S. banks to close the accounts of Somali money transfer operators out of fears that funds would end up in the hands of terrorist groups like al-Shabab. Regulation in the U.K. and Australia also made it difficult for Somali money transfer operators to work there.

Since then, operators have scraped by through partnerships with small and medium-sized U.S. banks that still allow funds to be sent to Somalia. But Merchants Bank of California, responsible for transferring between 60 and 80 percent of the total remittances sent to Somalia from the U.S., announced it would shut down such accounts in early February, and reportedly is still implementing the policy.

The Mexican central bank reported that money sent home by Mexicans overseas hit nearly $24.8 billion last year. It is the largest foreign source of income to Mexico. Trump’s remittance plan ought to help fund the border wall in no time.

Via: GP