David Vitter Calls For Government ‘Crack Down’ On Remittances

David Vitter appears to have embraced Michele Bachmann’s plan to prevent immigrants from sending money to their home countries, telling Sandy Rios in an interview yesterday that the U.S. government needs to “crack down” on remittances.

When Rios asked the Louisiana senator about remittances, which she feared could be going to “terrorists,” Vitter said he has “a proposal to put an end to that, to either end or put a heavy, heavy fine on those sorts of transfers and dedicate that money, use that money specifically for border or workplace enforcement.”

Vitter told Rios that “if we can effectively crack down on that, that would be very helpful in terms of enforcement.”

Indeed, Vitter has introduced the WIRE Act, which “requires a fee on remittances for customers who wire money to another country but cannot prove that they are in the United States legally. The fee would be used to enhance border security.”