President Donald Trump is taking aim at illegal immigration from a new angle, going after the financial lifelines that he says allow undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced that he had signed a new executive order directing the Treasury Department to restrict access to American banking and financial systems for illegal immigrants and what he described as foreign fraudsters.
According to a report, the president framed the move as part of a broader crackdown on fraud and illegal immigration, writing that “Illegal Immigrants and Foreign Fraudsters steal BILLIONS every year from the American Taxpayer.”
The executive order targets banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions, directing them to stop being used to facilitate human smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and what Trump called criminal cartel activity.
The welfare connection is central to the policy. Trump stated that bank accounts being used to store welfare received by illegal aliens would be shut down, with funds potentially subject to impoundment and seizure. The stated goal is to return that money to American taxpayers.
Trump also took direct aim at what he called a glaring security gap in the current system, arguing that allowing illegal immigrants to open bank accounts using state-issued driver’s licenses or documents from the Biden administration gives them unrestricted access to U.S. financial infrastructure. In his words, that situation is “not ludicrous, but profoundly dangerous.”
The order also targets remittances, the billions of dollars sent out of the country annually. Trump said the measure would help stop those outflows, which he connected to broader criminal activity.
The president tied the announcement to his administration’s ongoing immigration enforcement push, including a pointed message to protesters opposing Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. He wrote that violent disruptions were only strengthening his administration’s resolve.
Trump closed his post with a confident prediction, calling the financial crackdown potentially the most effective tool yet for reversing what he described as the border crisis that developed under the Biden administration.
The Treasury Department is set to lead implementation of the order, though specific timelines and enforcement mechanisms were not detailed in the president’s post.