I seriously doubt that most Mexicans sending money to Mexico use Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a hard enough concept for most people familiar with high-tech, much less someone who just wants to send $200 a week back to their mom at home.
If 1/4 of the remittances are sent by Western Union, and I would say that is a very low figure, then a 10% tax on remittances would still be $550,000,000, more than enough to start the wall and enough to finish the wall in just three years.
People will point out that you can’t just tax illegal immigrants remittances.
To that I say:
Wait, you are making a difference between illegal and legal immigrants? I thought they were one and the same? Isn’t that what you say every time someone says they are opposed to illegal immigration?
Legal immigrants from Mexico get hit with the same tax because this is a punishment to all of Mexico for not attempting to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.
If 1/4 of the remittances are sent by Western Union, and I would say that is a very low figure, then a 10% tax on remittances would still be $550,000,000, more than enough to start the wall and enough to finish the wall in just three years.
That assumes that a tax on remittances would not affect behavior. Sure, most Mexicans may be using Western Union to send remittances NOW, and may have no idea what Bitcoin is, much less how to use it. But if you impose a 10% tax on remittances? People would flock to Bitcoin and other untraceable/unblockable ways to transfer money. It happened recently in Greece when they imposed currency controls, and it would happen here too.