WOAI 1200 News Radio - Trump Remittances Idea Blasted as 'Half Baked'

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By Unknown

Donald Trump's plan to build a border wall by threats of withholding the flow of cash that Mexican migrants send home is not sitting well with border lawmakers, who worry that it will backfire, and lead to a surge of illegal immigration.

"You're going to have more people that are going to need money, so they are going to come over to the U.S.," Congressman Henry Cuellar (D TX-28) tells Newsradio 1200 WOAI.

He says Mexican migrants living in America send home tens of billions of dollars every year, commonly called remittances. It's one of the three biggest sources of money, south of the border, to include the oil and gas industry and tourism. Cutting off those funds, he says, would be a major blow to Mexico's economy.

"They're going to look around and say, 'Hey, we have to make up this money because they're not sending us money.' And, therefore, we're going to have more people coming up here to work over here," he explains.

Apart from the legal problems with using a section of the Patriot Act to block the flow of money south, Cuellar, who is a lawyer, says it would be a blow to the Texas economy. If Trump put in place his plan, the consequence, he expects, would be Mexico raising tariffs on U.S. made products. The U.S. does about $1.3 billion in trade with Mexico. Texas has sent $100 million in exports. Four-hundred-thousand Texas jobs depend on trade with Mexico and he predicts the Trump plan would lead to people losing jobs.

"Anybody who wants to be in the White house, who comes up with this half-baked idea, needs to put in a little more thought," he says. "Soundbites are good but sound policy is what the American public is looking for."

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