Here are the facts, condensed to just
seven short points:

(1) The Pew Hispanic Center estimated
that 10.3 million undocumented immigrants
were living in the United States as of
March 2004. And a study that year for
the San Diego-based National Association
of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals
concluded that nearly 216,000 undocumented
immigrants could become homeowners if they
had better access to the home-buying process.

(2) Mortgage applications used to
require a Social Security number, something
illegal aliens could not legally obtain.

The Internal Revenue Service began issuing
Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (ITINs)
so that illegal aliens could file federal
tax returns. Some banks then decided to
accept ITINs for mortgage applications,
so that illegal aliens could obtain home loans.

(3) The Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC) went so far as to
encourage banks to allow mortgage applicants
to use IRS-issued Individual Taxpayer
Identification Numbers instead of Social
Security numbers as a means of reaching
out to the Latino population and avoiding
charges of discriminatory lending
practices.

"The law does not require banks
to check immigration status," FDIC
spokesman David Barr said.

(4) Soon, "customers with little more than
a tax identification number and a pay
stub were able to secure 100 percent
financing on mortgages. The lack of a
driver's license -- let alone a green
card -- was hardly an obstacle to getting
loans."

(5) Some of these bad loans soon went bad.
Nationally, 375,000 high-interest-rate
loans were made to Hispanics in 2005, and
nearly 73,000 of them are likely to go
into foreclosure, said Aracely Panameo,
director of Latino affairs for the Center
for Responsible Lending. (The data does
not separate loans to Hispanic illegal aliens.)

(6) Congress could punish mortgage lenders
to illegals by refusing to bail out any
loan given to someone who applied using
only Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers.

These risky loans to illegal aliens were
not guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac, and now drag down institutions such
as Citibank.

(7) Any mortgage relief granted to illegal
alien ITIN mortgage applicants is likely
to result in quick sales of their U.S.
holdings followed by a hasty trip back to
Mexico rather than neighborhood stabilization
promised by mortgage relief proponents.

Here is what you need to do.

Please contact your two Senators and
your Congressman as soon as possible. Ask
them to oppose any mortgage relief for
illegal aliens.

Should they say no one
knows who the illegals are, tell
them that illegal aliens obtained
mortgages without using a Social Security
number, so we know exactly who they are.

This fight can be won. Thank you
for doing what you can.
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