Scott Besant said an executive order is in the works to require banks to collect citizenship information.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besant said a proposed executive order that would make it mandatory for banks to collect citizenship information is in the process. “It is in process. And I don’t think that’s unreasonable, because: Why don’t we have information about who is in our banking system? I have a place in the UK; They want to know who lives in each apartment. And how do we know it is not part of some foreign terrorist organization?” Besant told Semaphore. This would be a step in the administration’s ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration. Under the proposal, Real ID will not be considered an eligible document for banking purposes. When the proposal was first reported, Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, said he strongly supported the idea, and wrote to the Treasury Department, urging “a comprehensive review of the existing rules that allow illegal aliens to obtain financial services and access to the American banking system.”He said, “Access to the American banking system is a privilege that should be reserved for those who respect our laws and sovereignty.” “When individuals are allowed to open accounts without verifying legal status, we are allowing illegal aliens to establish financial roots and integrate economically, all while bypassing the legal channels that millions of people properly use.”Any possibility of making a US passport mandatory to open a bank account in the US could create panic as the order could impact millions of Americans. In a country with a population of more than 340 million, only 183 million US passports were in circulation in 2025. American Banker reported that depending on the state, only half of the US population has a passport. For example, eight out of 10 New Yorkers have a passport, but only two out of 10 West Virginians do. A record showed that the 10 states with the lowest abstention rates (37 percent or less) voted for Trump in the last three elections.The Washington Post said that Wall Street executives had warned administration officials that the plan would be an impractical administrative burden. Jeremy Kress, associate professor of business law at the University of Michigan, warned that the plan is “a way to weaponize the banking system to achieve political goals.”