Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated the Trump administration is aiming to restrict illegal immigrants’ access to federal tax advantages and money transfer services. Bessent said the Treasury Department is set to propose new regulations “clarifying that the refunded portions of certain individual income tax benefits are no longer available to illegal and other non-qualified aliens, covering the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Saver’s Match Credit.”
“At [President Trump’s] direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote on X.
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) bars most undocumented immigrants from receiving federally funded public benefits. In a February executive order reaffirming that restriction, President Trump asserted that, in the years since PRWORA became law, “numerous administrations have acted to undermine the principles and limitations directed by the Congress.”
Treasury’s proposed rule would classify federal tax benefits as “federal public benefits” under the definition set by PRWORA. The department said last week that the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel “recently issued an opinion adopting this interpretation.” Treasury expects its final regulations to take effect starting in tax year 2026, The Post reported.
In a separate post on social media, the Treasury boss warned that illegal migrants “use our financial institutions to move their illicitly obtained funds.” Bessent described the as “exploitation” before vowing: “It will end.”
“[President Trump] is right — if you’re here illegally, there’s no place for you in our financial system,” Bessent wrote.
The post coincided with an alert from the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, which urged money services businesses — including check cashers, remittance services, and digital payment processors — to remain “vigilant in identifying suspicious financial activity involving illegal aliens who present significant threats to national security and public safety.”
The alert went on to say that money services businesses (MSBs) are usually required to file a suspicious activity report [SAR] involving transactions of at least $2,000 and could violate federal law, including a “cross-border transfer of funds derived from unlawful employment or otherwise derived from funds the MSB knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect were illicitly obtained in the United States.”
City Journal reported last week that millions of dollars in taxpayer funds stolen through several large-scale Minnesota welfare fraud schemes may have been routed to the Somalia-based terror group al-Shabab.
The report, citing former state fraud investigators, state lawmakers, and federal counterterrorism officials, noted that most defendants in the high-profile cases are Somali or Somali American. According to the report, the funds can reach al-Shabab — sometimes inadvertently — when individuals involved in the fraud send the proceeds to Somalia, The Post noted, citing the report.
Trump announced Thursday that he plans to temporarily halt immigration from third-world countries following the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. In a post on Truth Social, the president said the nation has advanced technologically but “Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many,” RedState reported.
He wrote that he will “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
Trump added that the goal is “achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process” and that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”
