Hi, everyone!

Your emailing, phoning, faxing, calling and writing has been such a success in so many cases! We hope you will help us again and also let us know if we can return the favor by contacting banks in your area.

Here's the link to the story about Bank Calumet writing home loans for illegals. http://nwitimes.com/articles/2005/08/17 ... 09cb57.txt

Here's a link to the forum discussing this article, in case you'd like to join the discussion: http://nwitimes.com/shared-content/phpB ... php?t=7086

Here's my letter to the bank in case it gives you any ideas:


Mr. Cal Bellamy

Bank Calumet

5231 Hohman Ave.

Hammond, IN 46320



Dear Mr. Bellamy,



IFIRE is a citizens group dedicated to stopping illegal immigration and enforcing our immigration laws. After reading “Region bank opens home ownership to illegal immigrants� in the 8/17/05 Times, I felt it necessary to write to you.



Section 8 USC 1324 (a) (1) (A) (iv) (b) (iii) says, “Any person who…encourages or induces an alien to…reside…knowingly or in reckless disregard of the fact that such …residence is…in violation of law, shall be punished as provided…for each alien in respect to whom such a violation occurs…fined under title 18…imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.�



It seems quite likely that a court would find that writing home loans for illegal aliens encourages and induces them to reside here in violation of the law.



In addition, you and the FDIC should also be aware that the IRS itself says that the ITIN is not to be used for identification purposes. You can confirm this on the IRS website.



It amazes me that you can be proud of being the first bank in the region to write a home loan for an illegal alien. How can you be proud of making it easier for a known lawbreaker to get a loan than it is for a law-abiding American citizen?



We hope that you will reconsider the risk that you, your bank and other employees are taking by continuing to write loans for illegals and will change course. If you do, please let us know. Meanwhile, we will let other American citizens know your bank’s policy on this matter. Please keep in mind that over 80% of Americans want our immigration laws enforced.



Sincerely,





Cheree Calabro

Porter County Director