The Trump administration is considering a sweeping executive order that would force American banks to collect and verify citizenship information from their customers—a dramatic expansion of immigration enforcement into the financial system that has the banking industry sounding alarms.
The plan, still under discussion at the Treasury Department, would require banks to ask current and future customers for documents, including passports and other proof of citizenship status, sources familiar with the deliberations told CNN.
“It’s a bad idea. We are very alarmed,” one financial industry source said. Bank executives worry the order is designed to compel them to play a role in the administration’s pursuit to deport undocumented immigrants.
What It Would Mean
Currently, banks must adhere to anti-money-laundering and “know-your-customer” rules that require verifying where a customer lives. They do not collect or verify citizenship information.
If Trump signs such an executive order, it could apply retroactively—forcing banks to obtain citizenship documents from roughly 300 million existing customers while collecting them from all new account holders.
“Verifying every bank customer’s citizenship status would be unworkable,” the industry source said.
Representatives for major banks and industry groups declined to comment.
Still Under Debate
The White House has neither confirmed nor denied that an executive order is coming.
“Any reporting about potential policymaking that has not been officially announced by the White House is baseless speculation,” White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in a statement.
A source cautioned that plans haven’t been finalized and that officials are still weighing options and legal authorities. The possibility was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
A Pattern of Immigration Enforcement
The banking proposal is the latest front in an immigration crackdown that has already sparked legal battles and internal government turmoil.
Last year, as many as 50 senior IT professionals at the Internal Revenue Service (including top cybersecurity experts) were placed on administrative leave as Trump officials finalized plans to share taxpayer data with federal immigration authorities. That effort was blocked by a federal judge late last year.
A Treasury Department spokesperson denied the employees were removed specifically for that purpose, but the pattern is clear: the administration has been systematically seeking ways to weaponize federal data systems for immigration enforcement.
The Irony of Debanking
These discussions come as the Trump administration has simultaneously moved to crack down on what it views as “debanking” of conservatives. Last year, Trump signed an executive order seeking to punish banks that restrict services to customers based on their religious or political beliefs.
Trump recently filed a lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase for dropping him as a customer after the January 6, 2021, insurrection. JPMorgan has said the suit has no merit.
The parallel efforts create a contradiction: the administration wants to force banks to collect citizenship data from all customers—a massive new compliance burden—while also punishing them for making decisions about which customers to serve.
What’s Next
No executive order has been signed. No timeline has been announced. But the banking industry is preparing for a fight.
“Banks are not immigration enforcement agencies,” the industry source said. “This would fundamentally change the relationship between financial institutions and their customers.”
For the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States, the proposal represents an existential threat: the moment they try to open a bank account, they could be flagged for deportation.
For banks, it represents a logistical nightmare and a reputational crisis.
For the Trump administration, it’s another front in the war on illegal immigration—and another battle likely headed for the courts.
