Economist Analyzes Trump's Plan To Pay For Border Wall
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Economist Chris Butler analyzed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's plan to force the Mexican government to pay for a wall across the southern border between the United States and Mexico by preventing wire transfers from undocumented workers back to their families.
Butler, talking with Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, said every transfer to Mexico would have to halted, not just those from people here illegally.
"If you took Trump at his word right now which is that he would stop those remittances, I'd take that to mean he's going to stop them all, which would suggest that, yes, even legals here in the United States sending money back home would be stopped from doing so. Quite honestly, I don't know how else you would do it because it's so complicated to actually track down the dollars that are coming from illegal residents in the United States to Mexico. You would almost have to say, no more remittances period."
Butler also stated Trump's plan will take an act of Congress, it is not something he would be able to accomplish on his own.
"I took this whole idea to be predicated on some kind of a legal remedy. In other words, I would expect Congress to have passed a law temporarily suspending remittances to Mexico. That's how I thought the true meaning of this plan was because I don't think it is possible just to have Donald Trump as President standing on his own, telling Western Union, no more wire transfers to Mexico."