A Trump administration executive order requires banks to collect citizenship information from customers. It is in “process, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday, as experts warn it could leave millions of Americans without access to a bank account.
Would that be the millions of illegal aliens?
There won’t be a policy attached to it at this point.
In an interview at the Semafor World Economy’s inaugural Treasury Secretary Dinner at the Library of Congress, Secretary Scott Bessent said he didn’t think the order would be “unreasonable.”
“Why don’t we have information on who’s in our banking system? I have a place in the U.K.; they want to know who lives in every apartment—and how do we know that it’s not part of a foreign terrorist organization?” he said.
White House spokesman Kush Desai has previously said: “Any reporting about potential policymaking that has not been officially announced by the White House is baseless speculation.”
The left claims people don’t have IDs.
President Donald Trump has pushed to cut back on the number of immigrants in the country illegally since his January 2025 inauguration.
Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, has said he strongly supports the idea, and wrote to the Treasury Department, urging it to “undertake a comprehensive review of current rules that allow illegal aliens to obtain financial services and access to the U.S. banking system.”
“Access to the American banking system is a privilege that should be reserved for those who respect our laws and sovereignty,” he said. “When individuals are allowed to open accounts without verifying legal status, we are permitting illegal aliens to establish financial roots and integrate economically, all while bypassing the legal channels that millions use properly.”
Newsweek’s banking experts say it could affect Trump supporters. Apparently, they think Trump supporters and elderly people can’t find their birth certificates or passports.
We might find illegal aliens debanked at some point. We’ll see.
Your kid’s classroom is full of illegal alien children who don’t speak English – and you’re subsidizing them at your hospital and your Social Security office too.
We are done tolerating this. pic.twitter.com/YnvmUHT6YD
— Congressman Brandon Gill (@RepBrandonGill) April 14, 2026