For those asking, this would net out to around $1 billion a year, all other factors remaining constant.

Source: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/white-house-weighing-a-tax-on-remittances-to-mexico-to-fund-border-wall/article/2633089

President Trump is mulling a tax on cash transfers between immigrants in the U.S. and their relatives in Mexico as a way to fund his promised border wall without forcing American taxpayers to open their wallets, according to sources familiar with the proposal.

Trump first floated the idea of taxing or halting person-to-person wire transfers, known as remittances, during his bid for the White House. A two-page memo released by his campaign last April described a plan “to compel Mexico to pay for the wall” by preventing immigrants from wiring money outside of the U.S. unless they can prove their legal status to law enforcement authorities.

Because the Mexican economy has become so dependent on wages sent home by migrant workers, which surpassed oil revenues as its leading source of foreign income in 2015, Trump said he could convince the country’s leaders to make a “one-time payment of $5-10 billion” toward his border wall by threatening to stop the annual flow of billions of dollars from the U.S. to Mexico in the form of cash transfers.

In 2016, Mexican immigrants living in the U.S. sent $27 billion to family members and friends in their native country.

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If people think that this isn't enough to pay for the wall over the span of Trump's presidency, they are right. However, this can be used as leverage by the Trump administration for more favorable terms in any future trade agreements (current NAFTA renegotiations or bilateral trade negotiations should the former fail) with Mexico.

Would this also affect Americans that send money to Mexican family and friends?

Rogers introduced a bill in March to levy a 2 percent tax on all cash transfers from "anybody who remits to South America."

Last time I checked Mexico was North America.

What are the odds this is going to work?

It appears to be House Bill 1813, sponsored by Mike Roger (the congressman in question).

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1813/text

  The relevant text is as follows:

“(g) Border security fee collection.—

“(1) IN GENERAL.—

“(A) FEES.—If the designated recipient of a remittance transfer is located in a foreign country described in subparagraph (B), a remittance transfer provider shall collect from the sender of such remittance transfer a remittance fee equal to 2 percent of the United States dollar amount to be transferred (excluding any fees or other charges imposed by the remittance transfer provider). Except as provided in subparagraph (C), such remittance fees shall be submitted to the Treasury to be expended for the purpose of improving border security.

“(B) FOREIGN COUNTRIES.—Subparagraph (A) shall apply to designated recipients located in Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos, Jamaica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Aruba, Curacao, the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, or Argentina.

“(C) COSTS.—For the 5-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this subsection, a remittance transfer provider may retain up to 5 percent of any remittance fees collected by such remittance transfer provider pursuant to subparagraph (A) to cover the costs of collecting and submitting such remittance fees."

Within the available text of the bill, there is no reference made to the continent to which the countries in (B) belong to.

Absolutely no reason why we should do this. We'd lose more money from the lack of trades than the money we get from this

Instead of freaking out over such an issue, can we focus on anything better? Anything involving a hurricane from the past week which killed many people and created hundreds of billions of dollars of damage? If only such a problem existed in the US

This fucking wall Whoever comes next will probably tear the stupid thing down anyway, so what is the point? It's a money blackhole

StarOcean said: This fucking wall Whoever comes next will probably tear the stupid thing down anyway, so what is the point? It's a money blackhole

Well having the wall erected for 7 years will be enough for trump 

; )

StarOcean said: This fucking wall Whoever comes next will probably tear the stupid thing down anyway, so what is the point? It's a money blackhole

Or it'll just get torn down from the other side. 

Hey Trump, why are you building the wall?