Senate Democrats sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday demanding the administration refund businesses that paid tariffs to import goods into the United States under authority the Supreme Court has ruled the president never held.

“The American people — small business owners, importers, manufacturers, and the consumers who ultimately bore the cost of these illegal taxes — deserve better than this stonewalling,” the group wrote. “This money does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to the businesses and individuals you illegally taxed.”

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The Supreme Court ruled on Feb. 20 that President Donald Trump wrongly instituted tariffs under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, writing “that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”

Trump held a press conference later that day declaring he would institute tariffs under other authorities that he and members of his administration believe Congress has granted the president. But he didn’t give a clear answer about whether the federal government would refund the businesses that paid IEEPA tariffs.

“They take months and months to write an opinion, and they don’t even discuss that point,” Trump said at the time. “I guess it has to get litigated for the next two years.”

Senate Democrats’ letter says the Trump administration “collected over $130 billion in illegal taxes and then refused — with a smile and a shrug — to give it back.”

Democrats wrote in the letter the administration must tell U.S. Customs and Border Protection “to begin processing automatic refunds for all tariffs and customs duties unlawfully collected under IEEPA since January 20, 2025.”

The Trump administration, they wrote, should release a timeline within 90 days for when it would begin those refunds.

The letter was signed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Whip Dick Durbin, Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, Delaware Senators Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Colorado Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono, Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, New Jersey Senator Andy Kim, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, New Mexico Senator Ben Ray Luján, Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, Rhode Island Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, Nevada Senator Jacky Rosen, California Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla and Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock.

The Treasury Department did not respond to a request for comment.