Boycott Bank of America: Charging ahead with credit for illegals!
Posted on Monday, February 19 @ 14:03:15 EST
Topic: Boycott Bank of America
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 Bank of America plans to offer credit cards to illegal immigrants, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. Bank of America has been testing the program at about 50 Los Angeles branches. Applicants don't need a Social Security number, but do need to have a Bank of America checking account with no recent history of overdraft.
"This is a different card than what's been offered in the past to customers with little credit history," said Bank of America spokeswoman Betsy Weinberger, who said the bank requires a Social Security number — or proof of U.S. government federal taxpayer status or other documents in compliance with the USA Patriot Act.
Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs) can be issued by the IRS to those working in this country who do not qualify for a Social Security card.
Topics: Boycott Bank of America, credit cards, illegal aliens, ALIPAC, NIIBC, ITIN, Matricula Consular Card, Americans fighting back, cancel accounts, Congress should investigate, prosecute
2/18/2007
By COLLEEN CREAMER
Midsouth News
Banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to undocumented immigrants for some time. The new credit card, some say, will send a message to illegal immigrants that not only can they come here illegally, they can thrive here illegally. Others think it is simply more writing on the wall.
"Every step added allows those people to come to our country where they don't have to jump through the same hoops that everyone else traditionally has had to jump through," said Sen. Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro.
MTSU's Chair of Finance, William Ford, believes the benefits outweigh any potential downside.
"The fact is, the vast majority are honest, hard-working decent people," Ford said. "Nobody is going to take their place, so we need those people. We probably should be following the president's proposal to establish ways to let them work legally here and certainly provide them with decent services."
Mario Ramos, an immigration lawyer in Nashville, said corporations might be falling in line with what they consider inevitable, that President Bush will roll out a guest-worker program.
"Certainly there is a lot of anticipation and a lot of desire in corporations for immigration reform, and we are beginning to see a lot of people positioning themselves for immigration reform," Ramos said.
According to the Wall Street Journal article, the bank hopes to roll out the program nationally later this year. Weinberger denied this would happen.
"No plans on a national rollout," said Weinberger.
Still, many think Bank of America is planning to extend the plan nationally. Calls to local Bank of America branches were met with tellers who knew of the new credit card program and who referred callers to the corporate offices.
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, one million illegal immigrants come into the U.S. each year. Half of those get green cards or return to their native countries, leaving about 500,000 — a market that has unmet banking needs. Rutherford County has one of the fastest growing Hispanic populations in Tennessee.
The move is certain to fuel the debate over immigration both locally and nationally.
The National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition is launching a boycott of Bank of America because of the bank's offer to issue credit cards, mortgages and accounts to undocumented workers.
"People are already canceling cards and accounts with Bank of America over this news," said William Gheen of ALIPAC in a written statement. "The goal of the boycott is to get tens of thousands of Americans to complain to BOA, ask Congress for action and to cancel their accounts until this bank respects public opinion and federal law."
Jim Brewer, a Murfreesboro resident and Bank of America customer, said he'd just heard of the new policy and was not happy.
"The fact that they are illegal immigrants, we shouldn't be giving them anything," Brewer said. "They are illegal immigrants, and they shouldn't even be here, and they should not offered anything without documentation."
Brewer said he didn't know whether he would stay with Bank of America.
"I'd have to think about it," Brewer said.
Linda Thomas, a teacher at Blackman Middle School, however, thinks the idea would minimize crime and is generally in keeping with the American spirit.
"Because Hispanics keep large sums of money in their homes, it would eliminate Hispanic upon Hispanic crime," Thomas said, adding that the program shold be offered equitably. "Most people come to this country to seek a better life than what they can have in their homeland, which is what America was built on."
Weinberger said Bank of America was not aiming at the wallets of undocumented workers.
"This program has not been specifically designed or marketed for illegal immigrants," she said.
"I am very concerned about it," Ketron said. "It's almost a green light to come here and immigrate into our country, let alone our state."
Ford said the service would only help those who are here to stay. Rutherford County, and in particular the construction industry, he said, would fold without undocumented workers.
"The best estimate I've seen is that at least 100,000 of them are working in Tennessee, and it could be as many as 150,000," said Ford, adding that if deporting undocumented workers became the rule, the country's gross domestic product would plummet.
Salvadore Guzman, owner of La Hacienda in Murfreesboro and an American citizen since 1993, agreed. He said he urges those in his community to trust banks in order to get into "good habits." Banks in Mexico, he said, have a history of little government oversight and gouging. He applauds Bank of America.
"We do apprectiate what Bank of America is doing for our community," Guzman said. "I know it's going to do good for the whole community, not just benefitting the Latinos. It's a sign if integration and also a sign of diversity. We are neighbors."
From the standpoint of a "fiscal" identity, Ketron said, affording credit cards open another avenue to stability.
"We have always operated from a fiscal standpoint. We have always operated on that identity and this just opens things up," Ketron said. "We've already got enough concerns regarding identity theft, and when you don't have a Social Security number ..."
It's the wave of the future, Ford said.
"The point is, they were already getting financial services, so why not get it from one of the biggest and best banks in the world?" he said. "We would all like to see some method for these people to be legal workers rather than illegal workers."
Undocumented immigrants now go to check-cashing services or money transfer services, which charge very high fees to send money home.
"This is hard on those who are mostly very hard-working people, and if Bank of America wants to take on providing better quality service at more reasonable prices for these people, that's a humane and sensible thing for Bank of America to do," Ford said.
Ketron's view is more grim.
"The more it continues, the more acceptance, and it just relaxes everything. It gives me great concern," he said.
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