Thread: Banks covet untapped market

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Banks covet untapped market
Programs target illegal immigrants
By Franco Ordonez, Globe Staff | July 17, 2005

With their eyes on a potentially lucrative and untapped market, some Massachusetts lenders are granting home loans to undocumented immigrants.

The Massachusetts Bankers Association estimates that dozens of banks and mortgage firms statewide have begun providing services, including mortgages, to immigrants who have entered the country illegally. Some credit unions are also making the loans, an industry spokesman said.

''These people have more cash than me, you, and my dad put together," said Jon Mencoboni, a mortgage broker with First Metropolitan Mortgage in Framingham, who is actively searching for undocumented immigrant clients to sign up for loans. ''They have their money in a mattress because they fear everything. . . . They don't do anything with it, because they fear it'll come back to haunt them. All they do is save for their future."

The new practice raises intriguing questions because illegal immigrants are technically not supposed to hold jobs. But immigration activists say many are able to find work and pay their bills regularly anyway, making them good candidates for home loans.

The National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals estimates that more than 216,000 undocumented immigrants nationwide have the means to become homeowners. According to their recent report, ''The Potential for New Homeownership Among Undocumented Latino Immigrants," undocumented immigrants could take out $44 billion in mortgages if given the chance.

''There is no law on the books that says you have to have an immigration status to buy real estate in this country," said Gary Acosta, association cofounder. ''Some foreigners buy land without stepping a foot into this country."

Banks and other financial institutions in the past have required customers to provide Social Security numbers in order to open basic checking and savings accounts and receive other banking services. But new avenues are opening up for illegal immigrants.

Some lenders are accepting alternative forms of identification, such as a foreign ID card provided by a foreign consulate or an Individual Tax Identification Number, created by the Internal Revenue Service expressly so undocumented immigrants can pay taxes.

''It's really in our DNA to look for ways to extend credit to people who might be denied elsewhere," said Rob Kimmett, senior vice president of marketing for the Massachusetts Credit Union League, who estimated that several of the state's 250 credit unions have provided home financing to undocumented immigrants.

Critics say the practice will only encourage more illegal border crossings. An estimated 10 million immigrants live illegally in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, a Washington think tank. Between 200,000 and 250,000 live in Massachusetts, the report found.

''The problem is building up to a crescendo," said A. Robert Casimiro, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform.

But the profit motive appears to be a strong lure for lenders.

''Banks recognize that there's an emerging population that needs banking products and services," said Kevin F. Kiley, executive vice president of the state bankers' association. Both the bankers' association and credit union league have encouraged members to accept the foreign ID cards.

''If we can find ways to do it [grant mortgages], we will," said Lisa Rohmer, vice president of Framingham Cooperative Bank, who estimates her bank has given a handful of mortgages over the past four years to immigrants without Social Security numbers. ''As long as they meet our underwriting criteria and they have a tax ID, then we're all set."

In May, New South Federal Savings Bank, an Alabama-based national bank, launched Casa Mia, a new loan product designed to help immigrants without traditional forms of documentation to buy homes by accepting Individual Tax Identification Numbers.

Bank of America, which claims it serves 44 percent of the nation's Hispanic population, is also considering providing home loans to immigrants with alternative IDs.

First Metropolitan's Mencoboni said he's offering a plan for undocumented immigrants that charges them the same mortgage rate as anybody else, but requires a 30 percent down payment.

More than 2 million ''matricula consulars" or ''consul registration number" have been issued by the Mexican Consulate since March 2002 to Mexican citizens living in this country. The Mexican consulate in Boston has issued roughly 2,000 of the foreign IDs for New England. More than 7 million Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers have been issued, according to the IRS.

Anti-immigration groups are decrying the use of the alternative IDs. The Massachusetts Coalition for Immigration Reform has filed state legislation that would bar banks from accepting foreign government-issued documents.

''It's just like a bogus Social Security number or bogus driver's license," Casimiro said of the matricula consular. ''Only illegal aliens want to use it."

''These people have more cash than me, you, and my dad put together," said Jon Mencoboni, a mortgage broker with First Metropolitan Mortgage in Framingham, who is actively searching for undocumented immigrant clients to sign up for loans. ''They have their money in a mattress because they fear everything. . . . They don't do anything with it, because they fear it'll come back to haunt them. All they do is save for their future."

Where do they get the money? Is that a silly question? They have to pay for housing, vehicles, utilities, telephone, cell phone, food, clothes...just like every other American....oh...I forgot about state and federal income taxes, social security, medicaid, unemployment insurance, medical bills, property taxes, car insurance, transfer payments back to Mexico or their respective homelands, etc. etc. etc.

Last time I checked, just that would pretty much eat up the typical working class pay check, so why do they have all this money in the mattress? How do they have all this left over to stuff in the mattress when Americans don't? ARE OUR ILLEGAL EMPLOYERS OVERPAYING OUR POOR ENSLAVED ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?

OR--are they working by day and running drugs and god knows what else by night stuffing THAT CASH in the mattress?

You figure it out!

GET THESE PEOPLE OUT OF OUR COUNTRY NOW!!

Tell them to take their cash out of their mattress and go home; start new lives in their homeland; and leave US alone.

The one great thing about this new "banking" situation, it that there will now be a paper trail on this money and evidence that everything we've been told by our US Government and all these phoney baloney lying traitorous OBL-501 C 3 "advocacy" groups and the Catholic Church was BOLD FACED LIES to end our nation and disempower the American People.