Trump Has Dystopian New Idea to Find More Undocumented Immigrants
The Trump administration is considering requiring banks to track their customers’ citizenship status to find more people to deport.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is considering signing an executive order or other means to force financial institutions to collect the data. Banks would likely need to request identification documents, such as passports, from new and existing customers who want to open a bank account in the United States.
Banks would be alarmed by such a decree, according to the Newspaper. They are already required by law to collect certain information allowing law enforcement to combat financial crimes, including money laundering. But these requirements do not specifically include collecting citizenship information, and there is no law prohibiting noncitizens from opening bank accounts in the United States.
A White House official told the publication that the new requirement had not been approved and was only being discussed within Treasury. A division of the Treasury Department charged with enforcing laws against money laundering and terrorist financing could be used to collect this information, an anonymous source told the newspaper. Newspaper.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security strength the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to transmit the personal information of immigrants enrolled in Medicaid, and the U.S. Postal Service has also been enlisted to identify targets. The goal appears to be not only to increase the number of deportations, but also to force all immigrants, even those with legal status, to the margins of American society by making them fear that basic services, government or otherwise, could be used against them.
