Migrants in US, Mexico fret about Trump threat to halt remittances
In central Mexico's Mezquital Valley, new pick-up trucks bounce along unpaved roads and US-style houses are springing up alongside cornfields. But people are afraid that remittances from family members abroad, a primary source of funding for such purchases, may soon dry up.
During the holiday season, even as money and gifts have flowed into the area from relatives working in the United States, residents have fretted about what a Trump presidency will mean for them and family members working in the United States.
During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he would stop allowing wire transfers of money out of the United States from Mexican nationals unless Mexico agreed to fund a border wall. Migrants in the United States are expected to have sent a record $27 billion in remittances into Mexico in 2016, according to BBVA Bancomer, an increase of more than $2 billion over 2015. Remittances jumped nearly 25 percent to almost $2.4 billion in November from a year earlier, the biggest annual increase for any month since March 2006, Mexican central bank data released on Monday showed.
