Serious question: what do you think the "problem" is, and what could Mexico do about it?

The problem is that there are millions of illegal immigrants in the US. (Encompasses a wide range of problems.) Mexico, far from trying to solve that problem, actively encourages it. They could knock that off, for a start. Long run, they could fix their own damn dysfunctional country.

Not really. As I understand it, the proposal is to tax remittances to Mexico from illegal immigrants. (I know, it's a Trump proposal we're talking about. Still.) As such, I think it's entirely justified- they don't have a right to work here and send money out of the country in the first place, and it would act as a significant disincentive for illegal immigration.

I'm not entirely sure why we wouldn't simply seize these monies altogether. They are profits gained from illegal activity. Tax them? Screw that. Take them. Follow them back to the source and prosecute.

Of course, this will not happen, because we don't particularly want to enforce immigration law, largely because it's unpopular with specific voting segments and partly because some of our industries profit from low wage workers.

Serious question: what do you think the "problem" is, and what could Mexico do about it?

The problem is that there are millions of illegal immigrants in the US. (Encompasses a wide range of problems.) Mexico, far from trying to solve that problem, actively encourages it. They could knock that off, for a start. Long run, they could fix their own damn dysfunctional country.

You pretty much answered the above in your next paragraph, here...


And that answer above is exactly 100% on the button (and a large proportion of the reason Trump got elected).

Interestingly, if you look at the electoral map Trump support comes mainly form areas that don't have a "problem" with illegal immigration.

Interestingly, if you look at the electoral map of Trump support I'll think you'll find huge swaths of areas that think they receive zero benefit from illegal immigrants. I live in one of those areas. Don't take that as me saying we don't have a serious immigration problem. Many people who advocate shipping all the illegals back have no idea what that would mean for them.

I'm loathe to put words in your mouth, but I've never heard anyone making the argument that you're making (our government and business wants them here) actually favor measures designed to limit illegal immigration. Never. If you were serious about that, I don't see why you wouldn't favor a comprehensive approach, that addresses the immigration side as well as the employment side.


Look at it this way. I am against prostitution but not punishing prostitutes. Punishing people already being exploited is cruel.

If we did not have laws and policies enabling employers to create jobs for them, they would not come. They come for work and better economic situations. Get rid of the jobs, you get rid of the illegal immigrants, without further punishing them.

The system we have now is analogous (and yes, I know this forum reallllllyyyyy struggles with analogies, analogous does not mean identical) to having no punishment for John's but fining prostitutes heavily.

Those who want to tax remittances because it is wealth leaving the country, do you also want to levy a tax when someone in the US makes a foreign investment?

No. (We'd be better off if we could find a way to encourage investment here, rather than overseas, but that's a completely different issue.) It's wealth leaving the country, sent by someone who had no right to be earning it in the first place that bugs me.