Lawmakers will go to the US to negotiate the tax

The Permanent Commission of the Congress of the Union unanimously approved sending an official communication to the United States Congress urging it to reconsider the potential imposition of a 5% tax on remittances sent by migrants to their respective countries, including Mexico, and to form a diverse group of federal senators and representatives to travel to that country to lobby against the measure, which is expected to be voted on no later than May 23.

"From the Senate of the Republic, exercising the foreign policy powers conferred by Article 76 of the Constitution, we express our disagreement with the initiative promoted by Republican Jason Smith in the United States House of Representatives, within the framework of the project called The One, Big, Beautiful Bill, which, among other measures, seeks to impose a 5% tax on the amount of remittances sent by migrants," cites the statement signed by the coordinators of the parliamentary groups of Morena, PAN, PRI, PVEM, PT and MC in the Upper House and approved yesterday by a show of hands by the full Permanent Commission unanimously.

Senators called the measure "arbitrary and unfair."

Sergio Gutiérrez Luna, president of the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Deputies, reported that federal representatives also categorically reject the U.S. government's proposal to impose a tax on remittances.

From the podium, Adán Augusto López, coordinator of the Morena senatorial bloc, proposed, and it was approved, that we officially send to the U.S. Congress "a technical and political document outlining our position," and that we form a "plural group" of legislators "who could attend and appear in hearings before the committee or even before the full House of Representatives."

Of the $650 billion that migrants transfer each year to their countries of origin in remittances, he argued, Mexico, which ranks second in the world after India, receives more than $65 billion.

For the PAN, Miguel Márquez explained that the measure constitutes "triple taxation" because migrants "obviously pay taxes with their work; they also pay the cost of shipping, which isn't cheap, and at the end of the day, it increases by 5 percent."

Manuel Añorve, coordinator of the PRI senators, emphasized that "regardless of political differences," they have reached a "firm" agreement to reject the potential tax on remittances.