The United States government could collect between $625 and $702 million annually in remittances sent by immigrants to Latin America, according to a recent report.

Jesus A. Cervantes Gonzalez and Juan Antonio Ortega, from CEMLA's Latin American and Caribbean Remittance Forum conducted an analysis considering nine migrant groups, including Mexico, Guatemala, and Jamaica.

"The estimate of the total tax that all nine migrant groups would pay is between $625 and $702 million," the report states. "This amount, in relation to the $642 billion in their wage bill earned in 2024, would represent 0.10% to 0.11% of that total."

According to experts, the tax would not affect the remittances received by the countries, although it would affect immigrants. A percentage of them could even avoid paying if they make transactions electronically, as established by the "big, beautiful" fiscal and budget law signed by President Donald Trump.

Immigrants will begin paying the 1% tax on cash transactions, money orders, or cashier's checks in 2026. That tax, however, does not apply to naturalized immigrants.

The report was prepared taking into account the percentage of immigrants who send remittances in cash.

“The percentage of [remittances] paid in cash when sent from the United States shows significant differences across the nine migrant groups considered and fluctuates between 40% and 47% in the case of those sent to Mexico, to between 76% and 80% in those sent to Guatemala,” it states.

The group also considered Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, and Jamaica.

“The estimated amount of the tax on remittances paid in cash in the United States varies from $3 million for those sent to Costa Rica, to between $250 and $294 million for those sent to Mexico,” the report states."The highest absolute tax amounts would be on those sent to Mexico, Guatemala, and Jamaica."

Experts insist that the application of the tax would not affect the amounts of remittances sent to the countries of the groups analyzed.

"The tax applied would represent one-thousandth or less of the wage mass or labor income in the cases of the migrant groups from Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Colombia," it is stated. "In the case of the Guatemalan migrant group, the tax would be equivalent to approximately two hundred and fiftieths of their corresponding wage mass earned in the United States."

The analysis was based on information from 2024, but the researchers anticipate that there would be no substantial change in the 2025 data.