GOP lawmakers are pushing to boost a proposed new tax on money that migrants earn in the US and send back home to family — after being threatened by Mexico’s president.
Nestled in the proposed One Big Beautiful Bill Act making its way through the Senate is a 3.5% tax on “remittances” from noncitizens in the US, or money transferred back to relatives and family in the migrants’ home country.
Over the weekend, footage of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum blasting the planned tax during a speech last month went viral.
“If necessary, we’ll mobilize. We don’t want taxes on remittances from our fellow countrymen. From the US to Mexico,” Sheinbaum warned in the clip.
It is not entirely clear what she meant by “mobilize.”
But her salvo was enough to prompt several Republican lawmakers to promptly call on the Senate to raise the proposed tax on remittances.
“The House’s Big Beautiful Bill addressed the urgent need for a remittance tax. But we can go further. I’m introducing legislation to quadruple the proposed remittance tax — from 3.5% to 15%,” Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) seethed on X.
“America is not the world’s piggy bank. And we don’t take kindly to threats.”
The tax on remittance is estimated to haul in about $26 billion over the next decade, according to an estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Remittances are generally a huge revenue stream for developing countries. Mexico is the second-largest receiver of remittances in the world behind India thanks to cash flows from the US, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Some estimates indicate Mexico received about $64.7 billion in remittances last year, although transfers to Mexico have begun to wane in recent months amid President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
“New reason to amend the Senate bill to tax remittances at a lot higher rate…,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) wrote on X in response to the clip of Sheinbaum.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) added, “Raise the remittances!!”
Mexico is the largest US trading partner, according to recent data from the US Census Bureau.
Earlier this year, Trump slapped 25% tariffs on imports from both Mexico and Canada that are not subject to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Trump claimed the new tariffs were necessary to leverage Canada and Mexico to crack down on the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigration into the US. The president has since ordered a flurry of tariffs on other countries as well.
