Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Friday that his department will move to cut off certain federal benefits for undocumented immigrants, saying the agency will carry out a new directive from President Donald Trump.
In a message on X, Bessent said the Treasury would act on Trump’s Thanksgiving order, which was shared widely on social media and framed immigration as a “refugee burden” fueling “social dysfunction” in the United States.
Why the Policy Shift Matters
Trump’s announcement comes in the wake of a shooting that injured two West Virginia National Guard members and led to the death of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom. He has linked the incident to illegal immigration and, more broadly, to the presence of immigrants in the country, echoing themes he has stressed throughout both of his administrations while pursuing what he calls the largest deportation operation in U.S. history.
The alleged shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who entered the United States under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, a program that admitted tens of thousands of Afghans who assisted U.S. operations following the 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Lakanwal did not apply for asylum until late 2024. Earlier this year, the Trump administration granted that asylum request after a background check.
How the Treasury Move Could Work
In his Thanksgiving message, Trump sharply criticized U.S. immigration policy and the benefits he says migrants receive. He asserted that “a migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family,” without specifying which benefits he was referring to or how they would be accessed.
Trump’s remarks focused largely on immigrants as a whole rather than specifically on undocumented immigrants. On Friday, Bessent followed up by posting that he would move to freeze benefits for “illegal aliens,” while resharing the president’s Thanksgiving statement.
Bessent said 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.”
The move appears to build on work already underway inside the department, where officials have reclassified certain tax credits as federal public benefits. Those credits include:
- The Earned Income Tax Credit
- The Additional Child Tax Credit
- The American Opportunity Tax Credit
- The Saver’s Match Credit
Generally, undocumented immigrants cannot receive U.S. work authorization and are not eligible for Social Security or Medicare benefits, even if they pay into those systems via taxes. Some individuals, however, can obtain work authorization through programs like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
It is not yet clear how many people in those categories fall under the population Bessent intends to target. A report from The Hill on Friday noted that the real impact will depend heavily on how the final rule is written, including whether it affects foreign workers, student visa holders, or mixed-status families that include U.S.-citizen children.
Treasury’s Broader Stance on Illegal Immigration
Separately, the Treasury Department posted that “illegal aliens present significant threats to national security and public safety,” adding that the department will “continue to protect the American people by faithfully upholding the laws of the United States.”
Bessent also argued that undocumented immigrants using U.S. financial institutions to move “illicitly obtained funds” amounts to exploitation that “will end.” He shared a press release from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) highlighting “a significant volume of cross-border funds transfers, including remittances from individuals located in the United States.”
FinCEN said it has “taken multiple steps this year to highlight risks presented by cross-border financial activity” and urged money services businesses to be “vigilant in detecting, identifying, and reporting suspicious activity connected to cross-border funds transfers involving illegal aliens, i.e., individuals without legal status in the United States.”
Those statements did not fully spell out how, in practice, undocumented immigrants are currently accessing the income tax benefits Bessent referenced, nor did they directly address Trump’s broader claims about immigrant access to public benefits.
How Key Figures Are Responding
In his Thanksgiving post on Truth Social, Trump claimed that the United States’ foreign-born population stands at 53 million and alleged that “most” are on welfare or come from failed states, prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. He said that “patriotic American citizens” are supporting them through “massive payments” and concluded that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”
Bessent reiterated his support for the president’s approach in a message on X, writing that if someone is in the country illegally, “there’s no place for [them] in our financial system,” and vowing that the use of financial institutions to move illicit funds “will end.”
Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California offered a sharply different view on X. He said that what might seem like “a casual rant on social media” from the president is having a devastating impact on “hard working, law abiding immigrant families” who are now afraid. Khanna criticized efforts to “demonize immigrants” and cited measures like the Laken Reilly Act as examples of policies that, in his view, strip immigrants of basic rights. He called on political leaders to defend the contributions immigrants make to the United States.
What Comes Next
The Treasury Department is expected to release proposed regulations explaining exactly how it will restrict access to tax-related benefits for undocumented immigrants and other “non-qualified” noncitizens. Those rules will help determine how many people are affected and which programs are involved.
Meanwhile, Trump has signaled that his administration will continue to pursue tighter controls on both legal and illegal immigration, using executive actions and regulatory changes to reshape how federal benefits and the financial system intersect with immigrant communities.
