The Trump administration is taking action to transform the financial system in the United States into a tool that would aid in his quest to crackdown on illegal immigration, directing banks and regulators to increase the level of scrutiny of accounts, loans, and credit that involves immigrants who do not have legal authorization to be in the U.S.
President Donald Trump put his signature on a new executive order that provides instructions for the Treasury Department and federal banking regulators to increase the strength of customer identification and due-diligence requirements in order to address what the administration refers to as financial and credit risks concerning the “inadmissible and removable alien population.”
Reports have also revealed that the order is calling for suspicious activity such as payroll tax evasion, off-the-books wages, identity documents, and the use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers to get credit or open accounts without a person’s legal status being verified, to be put under the proverbial microscope.
According to a report from South Shore Press, federal regulators have also advised banks and credit unions that individual borrowers who have no work authorization potentially create an increased credit risk due to their employment, income, and ability to repay any money they might borrow being disrupted. Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller offered a description of the initiative.
Miller said the effort is part of the administration’s broader strategy to urge illegal aliens to leave the U.S. voluntarily, rather than go through the process of being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and then being deported to their country of origin. “Illegal aliens have credit cards, they have bank accounts and they’re paid with direct deposit,” Miller stated.
“Shutting that down is a massive engine for deportation,” he added. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has also provided instruction for financial institutions to keep an eye out for illicit financial activity that is connected to unauthorized employment, such as identity theft, payroll schemes, and cash that might be funneled into criminal organizations.
Despite what liberals online might be saying, the president’s executive order does not impose a ban across-the-board on bank accounts for individuals who lack legal status in the U.S. Instead, it tells both regulators and financial institutions to beef up their scrutiny and take immigration and work-authorization issues into consideration when it is warranted by financial or credit risks.
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A report from the Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR) that was published in July 2026, agreed with Miller in saying that the debanking plan will help increase self-deportations by illegal aliens, saving American taxpayers money by reducing the number of people that ICE needs to deport out of the country. The author of the report goes on to say that the plan also helps to destroy the shadow economy that entices a countless number of illegal aliens to cross the border in the first place, while helping banks avoid taking serious financial losses.
Watch a report on how Bessent is cracking down on welfare for illegal aliens here: