The Blogging Hounds

The quiet criminalization of cash is no longer theoretical. Under a new Trump administration financial surveillance directive, withdrawing as little as $200 from a bank in select U.S. counties can now trigger mandatory reporting to federal authorities. Framed as a crackdown on fraud, cartels, and illegal immigration, the policy marks a dramatic escalation in government monitoring of ordinary Americans’ financial behavior — and a significant step toward a cashless, fully surveilled economy.

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A New Financial Dragnet Takes Shape
On President Trump’s first day back in office, he signed an executive order designating major drug cartels and transnational criminal groups as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs). The administration argued the move was necessary to cut off cartel access to the U.S. financial system.

Less noticed, however, was what followed. On March 11, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) requiring certain money services businesses along the southwest border to report every cash transaction over $200 — including deposits, withdrawals, exchanges, or transfers — and to verify the identity of the individual involved.

In effect, routine banking activity in targeted communities now places Americans into a federal database by default.

Who Is Affected — and Where
The initial order applied to 44 counties in California and Texas. While later updates raised the reporting threshold to $1,000 and added counties in Arizona, the precedent was firmly set: cash itself is treated as suspicious. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent openly confirmed the intent, stating the government would “leverage all our available tools and authorities” to identify and counter illicit activity.

The scope is sweeping. FinCEN defines a “covered transaction” broadly, capturing nearly any cash movement between $200 and $10,000. Even individuals with no criminal ties are swept into the reporting regime.

Cash Thresholds Frozen in Time — and Weaponized
Banks have long been required to file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) for transactions of $10,000 or more. But what many Americans don’t realize is that structuring — breaking withdrawals into smaller amounts to avoid reporting — is itself a federal crime.

As libertarian policy analyst Nicholas Anthony of the Cato Institute warns, this leaves citizens trapped. Inflation has gutted the value of the dollar, yet reporting thresholds remain unchanged since the early 1970s. Adjusted for inflation, today’s $10,000 threshold should be closer to $80,000–$180,000.

Instead, surveillance has exploded. In fiscal year 2023 alone, more than 20.8 million CTRs were filed — roughly 57,000 per day — overwhelming the system and ensuring mass monitoring rather than targeted enforcement.

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From Cash Control to Digital Dependency
This crackdown does not exist in isolation. The Treasury has also announced it will stop minting new pennies, a symbolic but telling step toward eliminating physical currency. Meanwhile, the administration has moved to eliminate cash and check payments from Treasury operations altogether, replacing them with digital payment systems.

The Federal Reserve itself has acknowledged that these policies pave the way for digital currencies, tokenized assets, stablecoins, and ultimately central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Once cash disappears, every transaction becomes traceable, programmable, and — potentially — revocable.

A Tale of Two Governments
Ironically, while federal authorities intensify cash surveillance, New York State has moved in the opposite direction. A new law signed by Governor Kathy Hochul requires most retail businesses to accept cash for in-person transactions and prohibits penalizing cash users with higher prices. Yet even this law includes loopholes, such as allowing “reverse ATMs” that convert cash into prepaid cards — still nudging consumers into digital systems.

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Prophetic Context: Buying and Selling Under Watch
Scripture warns of a future system where economic participation is controlled and conditional. Revelation 13:17 (NASV 1977)describes a time when no one may “buy or sell” without authorization. While today’s policies are justified as crime prevention, the architecture being built — universal reporting, digital-only payments, financial blacklists — mirrors the infrastructure required for such control.

What begins at the border rarely stays there.

Conclusion
Under the banner of national security and law enforcement, the federal government has crossed a dangerous threshold: treating cash usage itself as suspect. When withdrawing $200 places citizens under IRS scrutiny, the issue is no longer about cartels — it’s about control. The erosion of financial privacy is accelerating, and once cash is gone, it will not be coming back.

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