Billions Lost: Why Remittances Need a Trump-Sized Fix
America shouldn’t be the world’s ATM.
By guest author Investor George.
As the Trump administration seeks to fulfill its given mandate for mass deportations, it is clear that American leaders need a broader scope on available policies to curb mass migration. One such policy our sphere has been beating the drum on is a tax on remittances. For those unaware, a remittance is a cash payment an alien sends to his or her true home country. Pitched to Americans as “a vital lifeline”1 for aliens’ families in Third World countries, these remittances are outgoing cashflows that siphon billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy — yet another way mass migration punishes the average American citizen.
Per the World Bank and IMF estimates,2 $85.7 billion worth of remittances exited the United States in 2023 alone. However, that $85.7 billion does not tell the full story; those institutions sneak into the fine print that untraceable transfers (physical cash, cryptocurrency, etc.) could account for 35–75% of that $85 billion, which pushes the damage to a total nearing $150 billion in cashflows.3 These hard-earned dollars are shipped out and spent elsewhere — each one a hit to our job market, schools, and other infrastructure.
Predictably, Mexico leads the pack as the largest recipient of U.S. remittances, at a staggering $53 billion — which, by the way, is about 2.2% of their GDP. India takes second place (not that we want to keep score), at $16 billion in remittances. Like the World Bank’s and IMF’s data, Guatemala’s receiving of $14 billion from U.S. sources does not paint the whole picture; that $14 billion accounts for 20% of Guatemala’s GDP! The Philippines pulls in $13 billion, and this country that, and that country takes this amount… I could go on and on about the parasitic relationships we tolerate with other countries, but I think you get the picture.
Source: Migration Data Portal4
Of course, here is the kicker: those numbers do not add up, and that is the point. The World Bank pegs total U.S. outflows at $79.15 billion in 2022, climbing to the $85.7 billion figure in 2023; yet Mexico alone took home $53 billion. When you add in India, Guatemala, and the Philippines, you have reached $96 billion, and that is ignoring all of the other countries I did not mention! The data is not just sloppy; it is a gaping hole in our economy that we literally cannot afford to ignore.
Solutions: Taxing the Outflow
With a 2025 tax bill looming, this is the moment to strike. Payment processors like Western Union, Wells Fargo, and PayPal5 are laughing all the way to the bank right now — and have for the longest time — as they rake in fees spent by all the aliens. As illustrated during the H-1B visa debate of December 2024, tech giants lean on foreign labor and profit when the dollars vanish overseas. Statista’s data shows how they dominate Mexico’s inflows: Western Union at 11%, Wells Fargo and Walmart2World at 8% each.6 These firms already track every transaction under federal rules, pocketing billions while we lose $150 billion a year. By taxing the transfers at this choke point, we’ve got a fix that doesn’t burden the average American.
Oklahoma’s been proving that this works since 2009. House Bill 2250 hit wire transfers with a $5 fee up to $500, plus 1% beyond, targeting drug cash and remittances. In 2016, it netted $12.7 million — 96% from those who don’t reclaim it, often illegal aliens skipping tax filings.7 Nor is this even a novel policy proposal at the federal level. In March 2017, during the first Trump term, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) proposed the Border Wall Funding Act (H.R. 1813). The bill stood to implement a 2% remittance tax to bankroll Trump’s wall by targeting specific countries in Central and South America.8
Current Vice President (then Senator) J.D. Vance (R-OH) and Representative Kevin Hern (R-OK) introduced similar legislation at the end of 2023. Their bill proposed a 10% tax on all international remittances sent electronically to fund border security. They argued that it would hit illegal migrants the hardest and dry up cash for cartels.9
Such a policy fits a long American tradition of using taxes to direct social behavior, not just to drive revenues for endless spending. Consider homeownership: the U.S. allows you to deduct mortgage interest from your taxes, an incentive that has helped millions buy houses and build wealth since the early 20th century. It is a deliberate boost to keep families rooted here. A remittance tax flips that script by discouraging shipping money abroad, hopefully also deterring future immigrants. Congress has tweaked tax rules for decades to push social goals, and placing a fee on remittances is the same game — only here, it’s aimed at keeping our dollars where they belong. Ironically, India has their very own remittance tax for outgoing transfers at 5% for educational/medical purposes and 20% for all others.10 Perhaps there is something we can learn from our subcontinental friends.
This past January, Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) supported a remittance rework at a press conference in Tallahassee.11 Previewing his goals to assist the incoming Trump administration and immigration legislation, DeSantis suggested that we E-Verify all money transfers and that the Trump team should also work on remittances.
Expected Pushback
Globohomo (I like this — “GNC” or “International Liberal Order” will work also) apparatchiks like the World Bank don’t see it this way. Their proposals and white papers fawn over facilitating migration and push for cheap transfers to prop up failing states. Sadly, they’re not wrong about the cash flow: $685 billion to low- and middle-income countries in 2024.12 This is a one-way street — U.S. workers bankroll it while globalists cheerlead policies that flood our labor market and drain our wealth. This isn’t stabilization. It’s exploitation, and we’re the suckers.
Seizing the Moment
Now is the perfect time to end the remittance nonsense. Trump’s base is roaring, immigration is a winning issue in 2025, and the upcoming tax bill is a golden ticket. Oklahoma and J.D. Vance have the playbook; all Trump has to do is introduce this issue to the American public by tying it to the ongoing drug war. Cartels launder billions13 through remittances: the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that Mexican gangs collect $3–6 billion (5–10% of the total).14
America is getting robbed on the global highway we built. Even a modest 5% hit of $4–8 billion yearly can fund mass deportations and send a message to the world: America’s not your ATM. If Mexico can bleed us out for $53 billion, we will rightfully take a cut back. Act now, or watch another $150 billion vanish.
David Malpass, “Remittances are a critical economic stabilizer,” World Bank Blogs, December 6, 2022.
Dilip Ratha, “Remittances: Funds for the Folks Back Home,” International Monetary Fund.
“Remittances,” Migration Data Portal.
(See: Xoom Money Transfer: The Disruptor That Wasn’t,” SaveOnSend, August 16, 2024.)
Note: While Statista’s 2023 data on Mexico’s remittance inflows highlights Western Union (11%), Wells Fargo (8%), and Walmart2World (8%), PayPal and its Xoom service are not separately listed. PayPal’s total payment volume reached $1.53 trillion in 2023, per its Q4 2023 Earnings Release, encompassing all transactions including Xoom’s remittances. Xoom’s specific share is harder to pin down. Before Xoom was acquired in 2015, it processed $7 billion annually.
David North, “Oklahoma Again Reports an Increase in Taxes on Wired Remittances,” Center for Immigration Studies, September 29, 2015.
115th U.S. Congress, “H.R. 1813: Border Wall Funding Act of 2017,” March 30, 2017.
118th U.S. Congress, “S. 3516: A bill to impose a fee on certain remittance transfers to fund border security,” December 14, 2023.
“Liberalised Foreign Remittances Scheme (LRS) | Law & Procedure,” Taxmann, October 11, 2023.
Video: “DeSantis Unveils Plan to Stymie Illegal Immigrants Sending Remittances to Their Nations of Origin,” Forbes Breaking News, January 15, 2025.
Dilip Ratha, Sonia Plaza, and Eung Ju Kim, “In 2024, remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries are expected to reach $685 billion, larger than FDI and ODA combined,” World Bank Blogs, December 18, 2024.
Will Freeman, Steven Holmes, and Mariana Fernandez Rubach, “Drug Traffickers Launder Millions Through Remittances. Here’s How to Stop Them,” Council on Foreign Relations, October 22, 2024.
“World Drug Report 2023,” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
 | A guest post by
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This is an essential part of ending and reversing The Great Replacement. I think we need to understand this in its full context to understand why this system is in place and who the beneficiaries are.
First, let me say that America is a colony. It is a unique colony in history. It is a multi-colony. On the first level are the legal and illegal aliens who work in America and send their money back to their homelands. This is the very definition of a colonizer. A people of a foreign domicile come into a foreign territory, extract its wealth and send it to their home country. Effectively we are a colony of Mexico, Guatemala, India, Philippines, ... ...
Then there is the supra colony on top of it. When Mayorkas was called to the carpet back in '23 he defended mass invasion by saying the remittances were essential to our good relations to the world. Initially, I thought, 'Yes! Aha! This is how the GAE bribes its satraps.' Well, I am sure this is the case. However, it is more than that. Recently Germany announced that it would import 100,000 Kenyans to fill its bus driver shortage. I guess they have 100,000 buses without drivers. In defense of this, a German official gave away the game. He said that this was very important for Germany because Kenya's government could tax the remittances and tax them being spent. This would enable Kenya to continue to pay its debt - to London and Wall St.
So, on top of the fees the banks and financials houses charge, they are essentially robbing America's wealth to keep the third world paying back its loans to the international financial oligarchy. It is also essential to American domiciled companies growth strategy. Walmart, Home Depot and others are opening up large distribution and retail centers in South and Central America to capture those remittances being spent outside of America. It makes sense. You juice the buying power of those country's consumers and expand your business.
In other words, this system is a system of unparalleled usury at a global scale. America the multi-colony is effectively a large prey gashed open and bleeding out as the main course in a grand feast of international predation.
We must communicate this to Americans. They must feel the anger of being this used and this fatally colonized by the world and by the finanicial plutocracy that is domiciled in our territory as they destroy us. We must also tie it back to Paul Krugman and Alejandro Mayorkas and their networks that have this system running to perfection. The Church once protected us from usury. Perhaps they get a piece of the action on tithes from some of the remittance money too.
Not only is The Great Replacement a crime against our people from a genetic and territorial standpoint, it is a grand crime with an elaborate scheme to pay for our own destruction.
The system must fall. I wonder if Musk will begin to tweet about this aspect of TGR in addition to the NGO based voter importation aspect of it.
This is a vital strategy down to even the most basic of budgeting. If you want to have more cash on hand to apply to important goals, you have to stop spending money and keep it in house. Cheap remittances is the equivalent of giving your four year old a credit card and sending them to the candy store once a week. To tax remittances is to allow America to begin to focus on the matters at hand.