President Donald Trump just walked back one of his most controversial immigration proposals — although he is not backing down altogether.
Trump is no longer going to sign executive orders directing financial institutions to check customers for proof of citizenship, according to a report from Semafor. Wall Street and other major financial institutions opposed the proposal on the grounds that it would cost them money and be inefficient.
Instead Trump’s new executive orders will require Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to guide financial institutions on ways to detect undocumented immigrants who ask for loans and open accounts. Bessent and other federal regulators will also need to change the Bank Secrecy Act to strengthen customer-due-diligence requirements and make it easier for financial institutions to acquire more information about customers’ backgrounds.
Additionally, Trump will ask the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to consider modifying rules that clarify deportation and wage-loss impact on customers’ capacity to reimburse these financial institutions for their loans. On top of the first order, a second executive order will encourage financial technology firms, financial institutions and federal regulators to more regularly collaborate to catch undocumented immigrants.
“Fintech firms have been lobbying for expanded access to the Fed’s payment rails, which they say would make transactions faster and cheaper,” Semafor reported. “Banks, for their part, have raised concerns customers could be at risk. The president’s executive order directs regulators to review their policies for opportunities to update that might encourage innovation and increase competition while still maintaining safety — then take steps to do so.”
It added, “Crucially, the executive order will direct the Fed to evaluate how it decides which uninsured depository institutions and non-bank financial companies can access its payment accounts and payment services — and report on its authority and options to expand access, as well as any potential impediments to doing so.”
While Trump has pursued a hardline immigration agenda, it is unclear how that agenda will impact the Republican Party’s political fortunes.
"The GOP's escalating infighting over immigration now has a pair of PACs lining up millions of dollars on opposing sides of Republican primaries across the country," Politico's Samuel Benson reported in April. "The dueling pledges turn a congressional fight over Rep. María Elvira Salazar's (R-Fla.) Dignity Act into an electoral proxy war between hardliners and moderates over how far the Republican Party should go on immigration reform. It's putting the bill's 20 House GOP co-sponsors in the spotlight."
Benson continued, "The Homeland PAC, backed by immigration-restrictionist Republicans, launched last week in an effort to primary some of those co-sponsors. Meanwhile, American Business Immigration Coalition Action, a pro-immigration group, secured $1.2 million to protect them through its Building America's Economy PAC and hopes to raise $5 million in total, according to plans first shared with Politico."
