Treasury Department Directs Banks to Flag Suspicious Activity in Immigration Enforcement Push

The Treasury Department took action to implement an executive order aimed at cracking down on undocumented immigrants by enlisting financial institutions in the effort. The department's illicit finance arm coordinated with other regulators to direct banks to flag certain suspicious activities, including identity theft and payroll fraud, and to consider whether customers' use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) rather than Social Security numbers or employment authorization documents might indicate risk. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau had already begun moving on the order, which was initially expected to require banks to collect citizenship information from customers. House Financial Services Committee Chair French Hill has questioned whether the final version is practical for financial institutions to implement, noting that banks should not be automatically tasked with hunting for undocumented immigrants.