Residents along the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas or California could soon be at risk of being accused of laundering money for drug cartels for conducting bank transactions as small as $200.



The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network has announced a new Geographic Targeting Order to crack down on questionable cash transactions made across seven counties in both states by lowering the threshold for banks to file Currency Transaction Reports to as little as two hundred bucks from the usual $10,000.



The new order was created “to further combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border,” the agency says, and takes effect on April 11.



“Today’s issuance of this GTO underscores our deep concern with the significant risk to the U.S. financial system of the cartels, drug traffickers, and other criminal actors along the Southwest border,” the Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said in a <a href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-issues-southwest-border-geographic-targeting-order">FinCEN statement</a> announcing the order. “As part of a whole-of-government approach to combatting the threat, Treasury remains focused on leveraging all our available tools and authorities to better identify and counter these criminal activities.”



The initiative comes as a result of an executive order issued by President Trump in January which designated certain cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and listed six major Mexico-based drug cartels as terror groups in order to prevent their members from gaining access to the American financial system.



The order increasing the threshold for transactions that must be reported covers 30 zip codes across Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo, Maverick, and Webb counties in Texas and San Diego and Imperial counties in California. It will remain in place for at least 180 days.



According to federal law, banks and other businesses like check cashing and currency exchange services across the country report transactions totaling at least $10,000 per day, including deposits and withdrawals. While ATMs often have lower withdrawal limits that leaves them unlikely to trigger such reports, they technically fall under the order’s purview.



The new threshold across the seven border counties has some critics calling them move the “wrong direction” for reform.



“More than one million Americans are about to face a new level of financial surveillance,” a Cato Institute policy analyst, Nicholas Anthony, wrote in a <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-treasury-expands-financial-surveillance">recent analysis</a>. “Financial surveillance in the United States has long needed reform, but this move is in the wrong direction.”

Chase Bank ATMs.

Border Residents Face New Financial Scrutiny, With $200 Transactions To Be Flagged and Reported as Possible Money Laundering

The Treasury Department lowers the reporting threshold for cash transactions in Texas and California counties to combat cartel activity.

Border Residents Face New Financial Scrutiny, With $200 Transactions To Be Flagged and Reported as Possible Money Laundering | The New York Sun

Home

The New York Sun

https://wp.nysun.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/the-new-york-sun-og.jpg

Professor Gordon Guyatt, a premier practitioner of evidence based medicine. 

Pressured by Transgender Activists, Star Academic Backs Out of His Own Research

Protesters in Portland, Oregon, wear inflatable animal costumes during ICE protest.

Portland Protesters Don Animal Costumes To Mock Trump Administration’s ‘War Zone’ Claims

Governor JB Pritzker on April 27, 2025, at Manchester, New Hampshire. 

Shame on the Democrats

Bari Weiss on January 18, 2025 at Washington, D.C. 

Panic Sets in at CBS News as Some Fear New Editor Will Report Anti-Israel Staffers to Owner

Kash Patel appears on Fox News.

‘We’re Just Warming Up’: Patel Vows There Will Be ‘Accountability’ for Jack Smith Surveilling GOP Senators, Doubles Down on Firing  Corruption Unit

Dolly Parton posted a video message on her social media accounts Wednesday afternoon appearing healthy and vibrant.

‘I Ain’t Dead Yet!’: Dolly Parton Refutes Rumors of Being Gravely Ill

Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli military strike in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, Wednesday, Octber 8, 2025. 

Trump Signals Possible Deal To End Israel, Hamas Conflict, Release of ‘All’ Hostages

President Trump hosts President Emmanuel Macron at the Oval Office on February 24, 2025. 

Border Residents Face New Financial Scrutiny, With $200 Transactions To Be Flagged and Reported as Possible Money Laundering

To continue reading, please select:

Enter your email to read for FREE

Join the Sun for a PENNY A DAY

Sections

More

Sign in or create a free account

A login link has been sent to