Myrna Hernandez, 53, immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico about a decade ago.
She works at a San Diego laundry facility where she earns about $600 every two weeks. Of that income, she sends $550 in remittances to her relatives in the Mexican state of Sonora. Her boyfriend helps her pay for rent and other essentials.
"What [my family] earns in a week, I earn in a day," Hernandez said.
When she heard that Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump proposed blocking the flow of such remittances if Mexico didn't pay for the construction of a 2,000-mile border wall, she said she couldn't believe it.
"This makes me sad because I work so hard," Hernandez said. "My family over there has kids, and sometimes they don’t even have enough to buy them little shoes."
Hernandez is one of thousands of immigrants who contributed to the $1.78 billion in remittances that were sent to Mexico from California during the last quarter of 2015, according to the Bank of Mexico. Immigrants in California send more money south of the border than those in any other state.
