Aside from its recent heavy slashing of foreign assistance and imposition of steep tariffs on various countries, President Donald Trump has proposed a bill aimed at taxing remittances sent to foreign countries.
The bill, which is subsumed under Mr Trumpโs โOne Big, Beautiful Billโ, allows the U.S. to take a cut of all remittances sent to foreign countries, a move believed to be detrimental to the survival of people, especially in low-income countries.
According to the New York Times, the passage of the will would be the latest sign of a U.S. retreat from Africa, after Mr Trumpโs slashing of foreign aid and introduction of unprecedented tariffs on the African continent.
Critics observed that the proposed legislation would mandate immigrants to pay an additional 3.5 per cent federal tax on top of the roughly six per cent they pay banks and remittance companies, amounting to nearly $10 of every $100, which would make the U.S. the most expensive of the countries from which to send cash.
They noted that Nigerians would pay the most under the bill in absolute terms, losing approximately $215 million, with Senegal, The Gambia, and Liberia also expected to be affected by the bill.
Helen Dempster, a policy fellow and assistant director for the Migration, Displacement, and Humanitarian Policy Programme at the Centre for Global Development, said countries in Africa would be hit the hardest should the bill pass.
โFor the poorest people on the planet, they are going to be hit twice by the various different steps that the U.S. administration is taking,โ Ms Dempster said in an interview with the New York Times.
The policy expert noted that the bill intended to discourage people from relocating to the United States while forcing those in the country to consider self-deportation.
Analysts also described the proposed legislation as a designed attack on the magnanimity of the diaspora, adding it risks plunging millions deeper into hunger while pushing up illegal migration and slowing growth for African economies already mired in debt.
Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the chairwoman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comments on the implications of the proposed legislation on Nigerians in the U.S.
Last month, Mr Trump offered to pay a $1,000 stipend as travel assistance to migrants who decided to deport themselves from the U.S. voluntarily.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the policy covered part of Mr Trumpโs administrationโs push to encourage immigrants to deport themselves as a way to help the president meet lofty immigration promises in the country.
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