A Republican senator who is pushing legislation to tax remittances that Mexican citizens in the United States send to Mexico described Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s campaign to guide Mexicans from paying the taxes as a “desperate” move.

Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) blasted first-term Sheinbaum in a statement to the Washington Examiner for how she vowed to fight back against a 1% tax that Congress had authorized to be imposed on money sent to people outside the U.S. under the One Big, Beautiful Bill.

“Mass migration is not only a bad policy choice, it’s also a booming industry, and Mexico is one of its top beneficiaries. That’s why Claudia Sheinbaum is desperate to help her fellow countrymen here in the U.S. avoid our new tax on remittances,” Schmitt said.

Schmitt added that Sheinbaum’s opposition to the remittance tax was the very reason why the U.S. needed to take action to address the underlying issue and the remittances.

Sheinbaum proposed last week that Mexicans living in the U.S. use a new government bank card to avoid paying the U.S. a tax on money sent back to people in Mexico. The card is generated by the Mexican government’s Financial Institution for Well-Being, known as Finabien.

“Mexico refuses to stem the flow of illegal immigrants into our nation because they have a huge financial incentive to maximize mass migration into the U.S.,” Schmitt said. “It’s time for Congress to pass my REMIT Act to increase the tax on remittances and end the financial incentives for mass migration.”

Last month, Schmitt proposed the Requiring Excise for Migrant Income Transfers (REMIT) Act, which would go significantly further than the recently passed bill and increase the remittance tax to 15%.

A newly released study by the Washington-based Federation for American Immigration Reform, an immigration organization that advocates restricting immigration, concluded that people working in the U.S. send more than $200 billion to their home countries annually.

The majority of that money was sent to recipients in Mexico, followed by India, Guatemala, the Philippines, and China.

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“In some cases, remittances intentionally or unintentionally support cartels, human smugglers, terrorists, and organized crime,” according to a preview of the analysis obtained by the Washington Examiner.

“Approximately $4.4 billion out of the $58.5 billion in total remittances sent to Mexico in 2022 were potentially linked to cartels,” it added.