Despite volatile approval ratings and an on-again-off-again conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump is still working hard to deliver on his promise of restoring safety, security, and sovereignty to the American people by driving out the illegal immigrant population — and steamrolling those who try to stop him.

‘Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System’

In an executive order issued Tuesday, the president imposed meaningful restrictions on illegal immigrants’ access to banks, cutting off a major incentive for foreigners seeking to violate U.S. immigration law. “America’s financial institutions serve a critical role in safeguarding the American people against financial fraud and abuse,” Trump observed in his executive order, “Restoring Integrity to America’s Financial System.” He continued, “My Administration will not tolerate national security and public safety risks caused by illicit cross-border financial activity, nor will it permit risks to our financial system posed by the extension of credit or financial services to the inadmissible and removable alien population.”

The president demanded that banks and other financial institutions enforce “know-your-customer” policies and verify the identity of clients attempting to open or manage accounts, including by requesting proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residence and work authorization. More than $310 billion has been laundered through U.S. financial institutions, the president noted, including money used for terrorist organizations, drug trafficking rings, and human trafficking operations.

“Banks and other financial institutions should also be attentive to the credit risks posed by the extension of mortgage and auto loans, credit cards, and other consumer credit to the inadmissible and removable alien population,” Trump continued. He pointed out that illegal immigrants face a heightened risk of loss of wages, either when they are arrested and deported by the federal government or when their employer decides to comply with federal immigration law and not hire illegal immigrants. “Lending to aliens without legal work authorization or who face a substantial loss-of-wage risk creates a structural ‘ability to repay’ deficiency that undermines the safety and soundness of the national banking system,” the president wrote. “Additionally, employers who violate immigration law may underreport wages, use mismatched or invalid Social Security numbers and taxpayer identification numbers, or fail to properly withhold or remit payroll taxes,” he added. “Such schemes can create vulnerabilities within our financial system by obscuring income sources, distorting credit underwriting, and facilitating underground economic activity.”

The executive order instructs Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to analyze measures already in place to prevent illegal immigrants from opening and operating bank accounts and identify weaknesses in current regulations, adjusting the Bank Secrecy Act as necessary “to strengthen risk-based customer due diligence requirements for covered financial institutions.” The order will also require the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to advise credit institutions that “potential deportation and loss of wages are factors that could adversely affect a non-work authorized borrower’s ability to repay an extension of credit under the ‘ability-to-repay’ standards” of 12 CFR Part 1026, commonly known as Regulation Z, which is aimed at protecting consumers in consumer credit transactions by barring abusive practices and standardizing how costs are disclosed.

George Fishman, senior legal fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies and a former lawyer for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), noted that Trump’s executive order aims to correct more than two decades of the Treasury Department’s failure to block illegal immigrants from using U.S. financial institutions and prolonging their illicit stays in the country. While the 2001 Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism (USA PATRIOT) Act ordered the Treasury to “require financial institutions to implement … reasonable procedures for … verifying the identity of any person seeking to open” a bank account in order to “provide the United States government with new tools to combat the financing of terrorism and other financial crimes.”

“But the regulations that the Treasury actually wrote turned Congress’s intent on its head,” Fishman observed. Notably, the Treasury Department recommended that financial institutions accept Mexican consular registration cards, used by Mexican nationals as a form of identification, instead of requiring proof of U.S. citizenship or legal residence or work authorization. “Why?” Fishman asked. The Treasury Department said at the time it was trying “to find a balance between the need for strong regulation that provides a real benefit to those working to achieve national security and law enforcement objectives and the ability of financial institutions to serve non-U.S. persons,” worrying that “efforts to deter money laundering and disrupt terrorist financing … might have a negative impact on … encourage[ing] … non-U.S. persons living and working in the United States [read: illegal aliens] to use mainstream financial services.”

“I am sorry that ‘efforts to deter money laundering and disrupt terrorist financing’ might have interfered with encouraging illegal aliens to use our banking system!” Fishman wrote. “These were not words written by President Obama’s Treasury — they were written by the Treasury of President George W. Bush, on whose watch the 9/11 terrorist attacks had occurred not long before,” he added. “June 9 will be the 23rd anniversary of the effective date of Treasury’s permissive regulations. President Trump has given us hope that those regulations will not see another one.”

Toe the Immigration Hardline

Immigration was a core Trump campaign issue in 2024, and the president has not favored Republicans who refuse to support his immigration agenda. Notably, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was defeated in a contentious, high-profile primary challenge earlier this week, after Trump called for the congressman to be ousted. Last year, Massie was the only Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the One Big Beautiful Bill, which provided funding for DHS components, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and critical border security provisions. Trump responded by labeling Massie “just another GRANDSTANDER, who’s too much trouble, and not worth the fight,” and succeeded in ending his congressional career.

According to Numbers USA, Massie has only voted in favor of immigration restriction and border security provisions 57% of the time over the course of his nearly-15 years in Congress, earning a “C+” rating, one of the lowest among Republicans. More than 200 Republican legislators earned a higher score than Massie on immigration reduction and border security.

Massie wasn’t the only Republican ousted for refusing to cooperate with the president on immigration. In Alabama’s Lee County, 30-year Sheriff Jay Jones (R) was voted out of office, to be succeeded by Cameron Hunt (R), a former sheriff’s deputy. Jones had publicly refused to cooperate with ICE in immigration enforcement, a point which Hunt brought up in campaigning against his former boss. “Let me be clear. This is a failure of leadership,” Hunt said of Jones’s refusal to participate in the 287(g) program, which allows ICE to deputize local law enforcement authorities to assist in immigration enforcement. “Had that program been in place here, there is a very real possibility this violent offender would have already been off the streets,” Hunt continued, referring to an incident in which a sheriff’s deputy was shot while attempting to arrest a Guatemalan national wanted for first-degree rape. “Lee County is one of the fastest-growing counties in Alabama. Growth without a proactive public safety strategy is a risk we cannot afford.” Lee County’s voters clearly agreed. Hunt has pledged to sign onto the 287(g) program.

Congresswoman Takes on Foreign-Born Congressmen

While not a member of Trump’s administration, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) introduced a proposal Wednesday to amend the Constitution to bar those born in foreign countries from serving in Congress, the federal judiciary, or as Senate-confirmed officers in the executive branch. “If you hold power in the American government, you should be a natural born American citizen,” Mace said in a statement. “This is not complicated. The people writing America's laws, confirming America's judges, and representing America on the world stage should have one loyalty: America. Not Somalia. Not any other country,” she continued. “For too long we have allowed foreign born members to hold seats in this government while making clear their loyalty is not here. We see it every day. This amendment puts an end to it.”

In a separate social media post touting the proposed amendment, Mace noted that the president and vice president are already constitutionally required to be born in the U.S. to hold office. She also pointed out that some of the most left-wing members of Congress — namely Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), and Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) — were all “born in foreign countries, none were citizens by birth. All sitting in the United States Congress. All making clear every single day their loyalty is not to America.”

Of the 26 U.S. House representatives and six senators born in foreign countries, 24 are Democrats, while 19 were born outside the U.S. not to American citizens.