Treasury Working to Cut Benefits and Money Transfers for Illegal Aliens: ‘There’s No Place for You in Our Financial System’
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Friday that the Trump administration is moving aggressively to deny federal tax benefits and suspicious money transfers for illegal aliens.
Bessent, acting under direct orders from President Donald Trump, said that the crackdown on illegals exploiting America will include banning them from the Earned Income Tax Credit, the Additional Child Tax Credit, the American Opportunity Tax Credit, and the Saver’s Match Credit.
“At @POTUS @realDonaldTrump’s direction, we are working to cut off federal benefits to illegal aliens and preserve them for U.S. citizens,” Bessent wrote in a post on X.
Bessent added that the Treasury will “issue proposed 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.”
This crackdown builds on Trump’s February 2025 executive order barring illegal aliens from taxpayer-funded benefits, finally enforcing the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) that Democrats have ignored for decades.
These rules, backed by a recent Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel opinion, will take effect starting in tax year 2026, slamming the door on fraud and redirecting resources to actual citizens who deserve them.
On the money transfer front, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) dropped a bombshell alert the same day, warning money services businesses like check cashers, remittance processors, and digital payment platforms to flag suspicious activities tied to illegal aliens.
Any transactions of $2,000 or more that seem suspicious, such as moving funds from unlawful employment or shady sources across borders, must be reported. This targets the rampant abuse where illegal migrants funnel cash back to their home countries or even to terror-linked groups, as seen in recent Minnesota welfare fraud scandals potentially benefiting al-Shabab terrorists.