The problems that arise if remittances to Mexico are blocked

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Podcasts Take Two

May 16, 2016

Listen • 7:57

The problems that arise if remittances to Mexico are blocked

Roughly $20 billion are sent from Mexicans who work in the U.S. If those funds are confiscated, U.S. and Mexico officials are worried about the consequence.

Mexican-flag plastic trumpets on display at a gift shop in El Mercadito. Soccer fans have been buying them to take to the U.S.-Mexico game Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Roughly $20 billion are sent from Mexicans who work in the U.S. If those funds are confiscated, U.S. and Mexico officials are worried about the consequence.

Every year Mexicans working in the US send around 20 BILLION dollars back home.

The funds help individuals and boost the economy.

But Donald Trump's plans to build a wall the length of the US-Mexico border has officials worried.

If the presumptive Republican presidential nominee makes it to the White House he says he'll make Mexico PAY for the wall, even if this means impounding remittance payments.

For more on the consequences of this, Take Two's Josie Huang is joined by Raul Hinojosa-Ojeda.

He's an associate professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UCLA and an expert on immigration.