Posted on 03/15/2025 10:33:36 AM PDT by nickcarraway
No, not even if you do it in a county that borders Mexico.
One of President Donald Trump's Day 1 executive orders designated "certain international cartels" as "foreign terrorist organizations," a classification that according to the State Department "play[s] a critical role in our fight against terrorism and [is] an effective means of curtailing support for terrorist activities and pressuring groups to get out of the terrorism business."
To that end, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a new rule cracking down on cash transactions this week, but only in certain geographical regions. No matter the administration's intent to target cartels, the rule will expand government surveillance of its citizens.
FinCEN "issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) to further combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border of the United States," according to the announcement. "The GTO requires all money services businesses (MSBs) located in 30 ZIP codes across California and Texas near the southwest border to file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) with FinCEN at a $200 threshold, in connection with cash transactions."
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the change "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 order lists all 30 ZIP codes in counties that each abut the U.S.–Mexico border: San Diego and Imperial Counties in California; and Cameron, El Paso, Hidalgo, Maverick, and Webb Counties in Texas. California's are the state's only two border counties, but the five in Texas encompass only a small portion of the state's total southern border. It's not clear why these seven counties were chosen out of the 44 total border counties, including any in Arizona or New Mexico.
Federal law requires banks, as well as businesses that provide services like check cashing or currency exchange, to fill out CTRs as a means of protecting against illegal activity like money laundering. Financial transactions totaling at least $10,000 in cash per day—including deposits, withdrawals, or a combination—require a CTR, where the institution must collect and record personal identifying information from the client, like a Social Security or tax ID number. The reports are then sent to FinCEN. (CTRs are different from suspicious activity reports, which are only triggered when a financial institution actively suspects the customer might be doing something illegal.)
The rule remains in effect in the rest of the country, but in those seven border counties, FinCEN has dropped the reporting threshold from $10,000 to $200. While ATM transactions don't often qualify since they typically have a much lower withdrawal limit, they are technically also subject to the CTR threshold—meaning a $200 cash withdrawal in one of seven counties could soon make one subject to a federal financial report.
"More than one million Americans are about to face a new level of financial surveillance," writes Nicholas Anthony, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute. "Financial surveillance in the United States has long needed reform, but this move is in the wrong direction."
Anthony says rather than lowering the threshold, the $10,000 baseline is overdue to be raised.
The federal government first began requiring banks to log and report all cash transactions of $10,000 or more in 1952. The Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 established CTRs as we know them today, and Treasury regulations enacted in 1972 set the threshold at $10,000.
As Anthony points out, the $10,000 threshold has remained since that time. If it had been raised even just to keep up with inflation, the current minimum for filing a CTR would be anywhere between $80,000 and $180,000, depending on whether you start from the pre-CTR rules in 1952 or the adoption of the current rules two decades later.
Instead, the CTR minimum has remained the same since it was first enacted, even as the power of the dollar has declined: $10,000 today is equivalent to $1,372 in 1972—a fraction of what the regulation required.
For this reason, the number of CTRs has ballooned far past the point that any bureaucracy could feasibly find it useful. Last year, FinCEN reported that for FY 2023, businesses and financial institutions filed around 20.8 million CTRs—an average of 57,000 per day.
"Inflation may have contributed to the increase in volume of CTRs filed, which has increased by about 62 percent since fiscal year 2002," according to a December 2024 report from the Government Accountability Office. "The inflation-adjusted threshold in 2023 would have been about $72,880. Using an inflation-adjusted threshold would have reduced the number of CTRs filed by at least 90 percent annually since 2014."
The Trump administration's push to crack down on penny-ante cash transactions is reminiscent of actions the Biden administration attempted.
In a 2021 bill ostensibly passed to provide relief from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration included a provision that would require gig economy companies like Uber, eBay, and Etsy to report anyone to the IRS who earned at least $600 per year on their platform—a dramatic cut from the previous minimum of $20,000 per year or 200 transactions.
The Biden administration also proposed a rule requiring banks to report to the IRS any customers with at least $600 in annual deposits and withdrawals—in other words, nearly everybody. (The IRS has since delayed the gig worker rule, and the Biden administration raised the reporting requirement on the latter from $600 to $10,000 annually.)
Clearly, the Trump administration is adamant that drug cartels south of the border should be brought to heel—hence the repeated calls by Republicans over the past few years for the U.S. to invade or bomb Mexico. But just as those methods would be an aggressive overreach of U.S. foreign policy, subjecting innumerable law-abiding citizens to additional financial surveillance is an aggressive overreach of fiscal policy.
That’s an lot of people to surveil.
it is none of the fed’s business if you withdraw your own money from “your” bank
this kind of ridiculous bullkrap has to stop
hoping Musk is aware of this now that the article has disclosed its going on
Yeah! Some people want to pay cash for a dozen eggs.
The 1099-k threshold for 2025 is $2500. Supposed to go to $600 in 2026....but there is legislation to stop that stupidity....and millions of 1040 forms that produce “$0” for the US government.
Agree THIS must be stopped. Trump needs to find out who implemented this and fire them
That’s a valid point, and in no way does any agency have the human resources to do it.
I’m guessing this information will be digitally logged into files associated with the people doing it and later used as evidence in court cases. Or some other criteria used in conjunction with the $200 activity that would suggest illegal activity.
THE PITFALL: When the democrats get back in power this will be abused to no end. People will be harassed. $200 activities will be used to get otherwise baseless search warrants. The list is endless as to what the communists could do with this.
If I get on the gubmints surveil list that automatically puts me on my drug dealers Do Not Sell To list. This is unConstitutional. I’ll take it to SCOTUS.
That is an insane amount of paperwork for $200. Even automated reports would fill a truck. I take out that much every other week for my wife and I to have “walking around money.” And, as unlikeable as I am, I am not engaged in any criminal enterprises.
Taking ANY money in ANY amount that belongs to you should not trigger ANY Federal person or organization to get in your business.
$200 - breakfast for two at Denny’s. Bottomless cup.
Two hundred bucks is just a tip at some nicer restaurants.
Fortunately FinCen stopped their Corporate Transparency Act that required all small businesses, LLCs, and even Condominium associations to provide private information of their employees and trustees. FinCen was going to share ID info, including photos, with local, state and federal LEOs, banks and foreign countries. Imagine copies of your passport or drivers license floating around Nigeria or Mexico? Worse yet maybe, floating around the US.
Should only apply to members of a cartel. Need to add this question: “Are you a member of a Mexican cartel. Yes/No”
“Fortunately FinCen stopped their Corporate Transparency Act that required all small businesses, LLCs, and even Condominium associations”
I did not know that it would include condo associations. Maybe HOAs also?
Anyway the CTA is a very burdensome over reach.
I know venmo and other apps were sending out 1099k-s for anyone making over 600..no, I THOUGHT that.]
It very much appears I was wrong.
But the 600 dollar reporting is Crazy.
Do you recall how you heard about legislation to stop the 600 dollar rule, as some have called it?
If not, no biggie :)
Brewster county TX has approximately one and a half person per square mile. It’s a 97 mile drive to the Mexican border. So the cartel isn’t likey to hop up to Alpine to get $200 out of an ATM there.
But I do think the rule is silly. Plenty of money transfer operations in Houston and Dallas. I’d be more concerned about the counters at the Fiesta Mart.
Yes, it’s outrageous!
Today, $200 won’t buy dinner for two at common restaurants.
At the rate we’re going, they should bring back $1000 bills for common use.
I didn’t see anything about Pedro using WalMart or Western Union or Wells Fargo to wire money to Mexico. Are they included in this? I’ve seen illegals wiring much more than $200 to Mexico.
When Stacy Abrams hits one for $2 Billion somebody should at least check into what she’s up to.
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