- Title: Migrants in U.S., Mexico fret about Trump threat to halt remittances
- Date: 2nd January 2017
- Summary: VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF BUSINESSES WHICH PROVIDE SERVICES TO THE MEXICAN COMMUNITY IMMIGRANT FROM IXMIQUILPAN TO CLEARWATER AND EMPLOYEE AT A BUSINESS SENDING REMITTANCES, MARIA DE LA LUZ PIOQUINTO, WORKING (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) IXMIQUILPAN TO CLEARWATER AND EMPLOYEE AT A BUSINESS SENDING REMITTANCES, MARIA DE LA LUZ PIOQUINTO, SAYING: "The majority are conscious of the fact that at any moment there could be a law which prohibits them from being here and that they will have to go home, to return to their country, not only Mexico, there are people from Salvador, Honduras and other countries, everyone is almost in the same situation, but it is worse for the Mexicans because there are many more. It is a difficult situation, they are working very hard, not only to sustain their families here but also to sustain the families they left in Mexico." IXMIQUILPAN, HIDALGO, MEXICO (RECENT) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MEN UNLOADING A TRUCK CARRYING BLOCKS OF CEMENT (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) RESIDENT AND RELATIVE OF MIGRANTS, ROMUALDO HERNANDEZ, SAYING: "Historically, Ixmiquilpan has been one of the municipalities with some of the highest levels of migration on a national scale, so receiving 20 or 30,000 undocumented immigrants in the course of a few months would change our situation. Our security, our work, our employment, the social situation would change. There would be much more need; there would be a lack of employment, more people unsatisfied." SIGN READING (IN SPANISH): "TORTILLAS FOR SALE IN GLORIA´S HOUSE" A WOMAN CARRYING A BABY WALKING THROUGH THE STREET GENERAL VIEW OF TRAFFIC ON THE ROAD LEADING TO THE TOWN
- Embargoed: 17th January 2017 22:52
- Keywords: Mexico migrants United States Donald Trump immigration
- Location: IXMIQUILPAN, HIDALGO, MEXICO AND CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
- City: IXMIQUILPAN, HIDALGO, MEXICO AND CLEARWATER, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
- Country: Mexico
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA0015XE15K5
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:In central Mexico's Mezquital Valley, new pick-up trucks bounce along unpaved roads and U.S.-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 (January 2) showed.
Monica Arroyo, who lives in a village outside Ixmiquilpan, the Mezquital Valley's largest town, said she depends on the $200 a month her daughter, an undocumented restaurant worker in Clearwater, Florida, sends home.
"If it is up to us alone, there is almost no money here, we hardly have anything here, there is hardly any work. So I say that if they send our emigrants back here, there will be more poverty because over there they do have work, they help us, they send a little bit for us," Arroyo said.
In recent months, Trump has not elaborated on his threat to block money transfers, and a 10-point immigration plan on his transition website makes no mention of the subject. But the possibility is affecting migrants' remittance decisions.
Members of the Trump transition team did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Maria de la Luz Pioquinto, an immigrant from Ixmiquilpan who runs a money transfer business in Clearwater, said her Mexican customers doubled their average transfers right after the November 8 election but are now waiting to see what happens.
"The majority are conscious of the fact that at any moment there could be a law which prohibits them from being here and that they will have to go home, to return to their country, not only Mexico, there are people from Salvador, Honduras and other countries, everyone is almost in the same situation, but it is worse for the Mexicans because there are many more. It is a difficult situation, they are working very hard, not only to sustain their families here but also to sustain the families they left in Mexico," Pioquinto said.
Remittances have become a huge prop for the Mexican economy, compared to the $18.5 billion in revenue from oil exports in 2015 or nearly $340 billion in manufactured goods, according to the national statistics agency.
In Florida, migrants say they sent more money than usual this holiday season in case they are unable to do so once Trump takes office.
In 2015, the area around Ixmiquilpan, home to about 94,000 people, received about $100 million in remittances from abroad, according to data from Mexico's central bank, more than 10 times the municipal government's annual budget.
Romualdo Hernandez, a resident in Ixmiquilpan with family in the United States, said the return of tens of thousands to the town would have severe local effects.
"Historically, Ixmiquilpan has been one of the municipalities with some of the highest levels of migration on a national scale, so receiving 20 or 30,000 undocumented immigrants in the course of a few months would change our situation. Our security, our work, our employment, the social situation would change. There would be much more need; there would be a lack of employment, more people unsatisfied," said Hernandez. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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