Protecting our border and our budget

Countries south of our border benefit from an estimated $50 billion windfall from the United States each year in the form of remittances. That amount surpasses U.S. spending on the Department of Homeland Security by $10 billion.  The World Trade Organization estimates Mexico alone receives $24 billion in remittance transactions, mostly from immigrants sending cash back to their home country. 

It is little wonder then that the hard working men and women of Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol find themselves overwhelmed at times by illegal immigrants seeking work in the U.S. Drug cartels and human trafficking rings also play a role in this staggering flow of people and cash. Once in the U.S., illegal immigrants can readily obtain high-quality fake IDs or even legitimate documents from so-called “sanctuary cites” or “sanctuary states.”

{mosads}I believe that the U.S. has not yet used one of its most powerful weapons in the fight against illegal immigration. Our modern and efficient financial system is routinely used by illegal workers to send money out of the U.S. by wire transfer and by other means. We must tap that cash flow to fund our own border security efforts.

I have introduced H.R. 1813, the Border Wall Funding Act of 2017, to impose a 2 percent fee on remittance transactions to South and Central America. This bill collects a fee regardless of the sender’s immigration status. I chose this course of action because fake IDs and black market middlemen have made quickly verifying an individual’s immigration status nearly impossible for even the most vigilant businesses.  

H.R. 1813 would deposit fee revenue into an account dedicated to improving border security and building a wall. Collecting just 2 percent of the estimated $50.8 billion sent to the countries listed in the bill could yield nearly $1 billion per year to secure our border. More importantly, it is targeted at those moving money out of the U.S. rather than raiding the U.S. taxpayer’s wallet.

To further protect taxpayers and commerce, H.R. 1813 allows financial service providers to use a small portion of the fee to cover the cost of implementing any system or regulation required to collect the fee. The bill’s strong criminal penalties for avoiding the fee or using middlemen will help hold the line against fraud. Finally, the bill empowers the secretaries of State, Treasury, and Homeland Security to punish nations that harbor money launderers by withholding U.S. money or immigration privileges.

President Trump has repeatedly said that Mexico should help pay for the border wall.  I believe H.R. 1813 upholds that promise to secure our border while protecting the taxpayer. 

Rogers serves on the Homeland Security Committee.

The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.