Trump Moves to Tighten Banking Access for Non-Citizens
· Time
President Donald Trump is moving to tighten access to financial systems for non-citizens in the U.S. amid his Administration’s broader crackdown on immigration.
On Tuesday, Trump signed an executive order, titled “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System,” that would require banks to treat a customer’s immigration status as a factor in evaluating potential financial risk.
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The new order directs the Treasury Secretary and federal financial regulators to issue guidance to banks on identifying customers whose profiles or transactions potentially indicate risks like money laundering, terrorism financing, and labor trafficking in line with the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act. Those changes are intended to “account for the risks foreign consular identification cards pose to the integrity of the United States financial system,” the order said.
The order describes “red flags and typologies” associated with suspicious activity. Among these are repetitive cash withdrawals, the use of shell companies to conceal true account ownership, and the use of certain platforms for “off-the-books” wage payments.
The “red flags” also include the use of an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN)—which anyone, regardless of immigration status, can obtain in order to file and pay taxes—instead of a social security number when opening an account or taking certain banking actions.
The move could make it more difficult for non-citizens, especially undocumented immigrants, to access financial services, even for legitimate reasons. The Administration has aggressively clamped down on both legal and illegal immigration in the U.S. It has detained and deported people en masse, including some with lawful immigration status; increased scrutiny for visa and citizenship applications; and restricted immigrants’ access to public services. Large-scale immigration raids have ignited protests across the country, which have ended in the killings of several Americans by federal agents.
The Treasury Department also announced in November plans to reclassify certain refundable tax credits as “federal public benefits,” restricting eligibility for some non-citizens who file taxes in the U.S.
“President Trump is taking action to restore integrity to America’s financial system, cracking down on illicit activity that threatens national security and ending the extension of credit to high-risk borrowers that American citizens are forced to subsidize,” a White House fact sheet for the order said. “Restoring sound underwriting standards puts money back in the pockets of law-abiding Americans.”
The fact sheet claimed that “gaps in customer identification practices have allowed terrorists, drug traffickers, money launderers, and other criminal networks to exploit U.S. financial institutions to move illicit funds and evade law enforcement,” citing documented Chinese-linked money laundering networks.
The White House also pointed to cases of banks extending mortgages, credit cards, and loans to undocumented immigrants and employers underreporting wages for undocumented employees, arguing that associated “costs are passed on to American consumers in the forms of higher fees and interest rates.”
It is unclear the extent to which these activities raise banking fees and interest rates for ordinary Americans. Economists generally attribute higher rates to benchmark rates, which are used to balance inflation and job growth, bank funding costs, and individual factors like borrowers’ credit scores. Around 5,000 to 6,000 mortgages were issued to customers with ITINs, according to a study by the left-leaning Urban institute. Banks are generally reluctant to lend to customers with ITINs, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are generally disinclined to insure mortgages for borrowers with an ITIN, according to the Associated Press.
The order also directs the Treasury to consider regulatory changes under the Bank Secrecy Act that would enable financial institutions to more readily collect customer data, including immigration status and employment authorization.
The Trump Administration had earlier considered a stricter proposal that would have required banks to collect new and existing customers’ citizenship information. Finance leaders had largely opposed the proposal, warning that requiring the collection of customer data would be an onerous and extremely costly process. Critics said that the proposal risked “debanking” millions of Americans, because many citizens don’t readily possess passports or other citizenship documents that banks might require, disproportionately affecting elderly Americans, low-income households, and rural residents. Such a proposal might also drive consumers away from regulated banks, analysts said.
Tuesday’s order represents a pullback by the Trump Administration after months of targeting major U.S. financial institutions over “political debanking” and customer screening practices. Trump has repeatedly accused banks of discriminating against conservatives, and has filed a $5 billion lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase and its CEO over the closure of his accounts following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. JPMorgan Chase said in January, “Our company does not close accounts for political or religious reasons. We do close accounts because they create legal or regulatory risk for the company. We regret having to do so, but often rules and regulatory expectations lead us to do so.”At the same time, the White House has overseen a broader deregulatory push that has benefited firms outside the traditional banking framework, and openly embraced cryptocurrency, with Trump pledging to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet.”