Thread: Credito Facil

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Credito Facil
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

Posted 2/13/2007





The Border: Depending on whose estimate you use, there are anywhere from 12 million to 30 million people in the U.S. illegally. Why so many? One word: incentives.

Some of the incentives are small, some large. But taken together, they constitute an economic magnet too powerful for poor people south of the border to resist.

Word is that Bank of America is adding yet another incentive in the form of a special credit card for illegal immigrants. No Social Security number? No credit history? No problem! Just have a bank account open for three months and don't bounce any checks during that time and a card is yours.


Last year, we wrote about Bank of America's "Safe Send" accounts, letting Mexicans here illegally send billions home. The bank, by the way, also sponsored a conference by La Raza, a radical group that has preached Mexican "reconquista" of the Southwest.

Doesn't it strike you as wrong that taxpayer-supported protections — such as federal deposit insurance for banks — should pay for services to people who are breaking the law and want to tear this country asunder?

We suppose it's just another step in the illegalization of our economy. Look at the gusher of remittances back to Mexico (see chart), thanks to BofA and others. Being illegal is good business. It's now possible, if you're here illegally, to open a checking account, get a driver's license, vote, even take out a mortgage.

Census data show the number of illegals — mostly from Mexico — growing by 500,000 a year. As remittances show, Mexico has little incentive to bring back the 15% of its work force that now resides here.

We can't just blame businesses, though. In California, home to the majority of America's illegals, the minimum wage is set to go to $8 an hour, highest in the nation, thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Think that won't be a magnet for more immigration? The governator also wants taxpayers to pony up for health care for the children of illegals.

California, here they come!

However you feel about the humanitarian elements of such largesse, it's an economic disaster waiting to happen.

As Americans tire of footing the bill for the burgeoning illegal populations, businesses and politicians become more addicted to the cheap labor and bloc votes of immigrant "activist" groups.

We're all for immigration — legal immigration, controlled and defined to be of maximum benefit to the U.S., its people, its economy, its culture and its institutions. What we have today is anything but.



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