Surinamese people must also help pay for Mexican wall
Surinamese citizens in the United States who send remittances to family back home may soon find themselves contributing to the construction of the Mexican border wall — a key commitment of US President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign.
A United States congressman is proposing that an amendment be made to the US Electronic Fund Transfer Act to impose a fee for remittance transfers to certain foreign countries — including Suriname. Representative Mike Rogers, of Alabama’s 3rd Congressional District that includes Auburn, introduced HR 1813, titled Border Wall Funding Act of 2017 in the US House of Representatives on Thursday, March 30.
The bill allows for a two per cent fee charged on individuals sending money to recipients in 42 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
According to the bill, the remittance fees would be submitted to the US Treasury to be expended for the purpose of building President Donald Trump’s proposed wall along the US-Mexico border. “A remittance transfer provider shall collect from the sender of such remittance transfer a remittance fee equal to two per cent of the United States dollar amount to be transferred (excluding any fees or other charges imposed by the remittance transfer provider),” the bill read. It listed a penalty of not more than USD 500,000 or twice the value of the funds involved in the remittance transfer — whichever is greater — or imprisonment for not more than 20 years, or both; for people found guilty of evading the transaction fee. Since February, similar legislation has been introduced to the US House of Representatives under the Border Wall Funding Act of 2017 seeking ways to fund President Trump’s proposed wall. It is still unclear how much money Surinamese people living in the US send to relatives and friends back home. One thing is clear and that is that President Trump needs $21.6 billion to finance his border wall. Sources told Times of Suriname that the matter is already being discussed by heads of states of South American and Caribbean countries who will reportedly take a collective stance against the proposal of the US It is feared that the proposal could lead to money transfers from the US to countries in the region to take place in the informal sphere.