Mexico's #1 income is now money sent from the U.S. Rather than coming to the US to "live" here (i.e. work, invest, buy, become legal, become American), illegal immigrants send their profits and earnings back home, never being able to establish themselves in this country, nor create a real future for their children. Even legal immigrants, many of them, work tirelessly just to buy themselves "a little house" in their home town.
This has caused Mexico's industry to completely decline, making more people want to come to the US for work, and creating a vicious cycle. Why work if you get easy dollars every month?
We can stop this cycle by charging a 50% tax on all money wired or sent to Mexico and other Latin American countries (Mexico is the most notorious. There could be a "business" exclusion, but individuals would get hit with the tax.). The government (Federal or individual States or both) would get a huge pay-back for the uninsured medical and other illegal immigration policing and other costs. There would immediately be less of an incentive to come to the US. Within as little as a month's time, I predict Mexico would drop into a deep recession. The people would have no choice but to go to work and hold their government accountable for their dire circumstances! A considerable period of time would pass until underground "cash transfer" agents arise, but then again, how can you trust some guy to deliver cash to your family? After a few families get dinged for using "cash coyotes", they would stop trying.
Of course, the border patrol and fence need to be in place. In addition, border patrol going to Mexico would have to check vehicles for illegal cash transporting. However, even if some cash went through, it would be nowhere near the millions that are sent, TAX FREE, to Latin American every month! Western Union, the banks, and any other cash transfer system would have to fork over the 50% charge, just like they fork over sales taxes and payroll taxes. I believe this law would put a dent in the illegal immigration problem very quickly. It would not be too difficult to implement. And importantly, the US has the right to enact such a law for the protection of its rightful citizens.
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Since farmers are already complaining that their crops are rotting in the fields because there are insufficient illegal aliens to harvest them a further measure to discourage immigrants from coming to do the work poses an interesting problem for all those employers who heavily depend upon cheap labor to get the jobs done. As the New York Times has noted in its current editorial, Colorado has turned to chain-ganged prisoners to replace the loss of immigrant labor. As The USA has the largest prisoner population in the world it is but a short step to re-instituting slavery to provide cheap labor. To say the least, it is an interesting cultural change but not out of step with the current administrations progress towards a police state.
It's about time that prisoners do something while in jail, rather than join in-jail gangs, run drugs from inside and basically continue their lives on ths inside. If the US argicultural department needs the workers as you say, then giving these people the Bush-suggested worker permit would come with allowing them to come in to do that particular job. IN order to get the money to their families, however, they would have to GO BACK HOME! The issue in this web-page is a "why-not?" question for solving an existing problem, or one we still don't know about. Illegal immigration is a problem. Charging 50% tax on all funds sent oversees by anyone (with few business exceptions) is a solution. You are not critizicing the "solution", you are bringing up your own political views, which is irrelevant. Since you didn't nor critizice the "solution" I take it that you therefor agree that this 50% TAX would put a huge dent in the problem in an relatively inexpensive, and straight forward way. The Government is already set up to create tax forms (there are thousands of them) and the US economic business structure is well geared towards modifying their accounting to include tax changes. This happens every year and throughout the year (I think of pension rule changes; income tax law changes, etc.) The illegals would have a choice: Come in but keep the money inside the US economy, creating more jobs, and investment opportunity; or, send it home but pay a heafty price for your choice.
One of the arguments used to support both illegal immigration and the "war on drugs" is that they take the place of foreign aid, because of the resulting flow of American dollars to various countries - Mexico, Columbia, etc.
Once again, the fact is that Mexico has ten times too many people, in spite of what our conservative friends are saying. This excess population is then used by our own capitalists to "grow" our own economy at low cost. This house of cards will eventually come crashing down.
For immigration control a circuitous solution is to pass a law that all persons in federal employee earn the federal minimum wage, including all branches of state and local government as well. Within seconds, the senate will vote to raise the minimum wage to a living wage; and no job in the USA will pay less than a living wage. Nobody will take federal employment or government work to get rich on the back of the people. This will naturally root out the corruption of interests; and this will weaken the tyranny of the oligopoly; that will increase grassroots business and economic ingenuity which will create jobs and long term success greater than any numbers of immigrants. Then you won't care.
Unworkable - unless there were no exclusions.
- If this tax only applied to transfers to countries X, Y and Z; then all I have to do is set up a bank account in country W, send the money there, then send it on from W to X, bypassing the tax.
- If this tax only applied to private transactions, I just set up a dummy company (or some group sets one up), and route it through that.
But, it would "work" if it were universal with no loopholes, but then you no longer have a convertible currency, you are restricting currency flows out of your country. This method is already used by countries with a weak currency, and non-capitalist countries. The result is no importers will accept your currency, and you have to use someone else's currency for all your international trade.