Trump Administration Tightens Financial Rules Affecting Immigrants: SBA Loan Restrictions and Bank Surveillance Powers

The Trump administration has pursued a two-pronged financial crackdown touching immigration from different angles. The Small Business Administration, led by Kelly Loeffler, quietly changed its lending policy in March to restrict loans exclusively to U.S. citizens, ending decades of eligibility for lawful permanent residents who previously qualified. The SBA says 4% of its loans last year went to businesses involving permanent residents, and agency head Loeffler has argued taxpayer dollars should benefit only citizens — though permanent residents pay U.S. taxes. Critics, including immigrant entrepreneurs and Democratic lawmakers, say the policy will stifle job creation, push business owners toward predatory lending, and harm an immigrant community that, per Census data, runs 20–25% of U.S. businesses despite comprising 15% of the population. Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that banks can now share customer surveillance video and cyber data under Section 314(b) of the Patriot Act to identify cartel financiers and payroll fraud schemes linked to undocumented labor, which accounted for $2.5 billion in suspicious banking activity in 2025. Bessent stressed the advisory does not ask banks to act as immigration officers, but rather to report suspicious financial patterns; the banking industry had previously lobbied against a more sweeping executive order that would have mandated collecting customers' citizenship status. The dual policies illustrate how the administration is using financial regulatory levers — beyond direct enforcement — to advance its immigration agenda.