February 17, 2008
Stop banks' catering to illegal immigrants and aid economy
By PHIL VALENTINE

When President Bush announced that he had persuaded a group of lenders to allow homeowners facing foreclosure to stave off losing their homes for 30 days, an alarm bell went off in my mind.

Not that there's anything wrong with helping people keep their homes. That's in the best interest of all involved. It wasn't that. It was the participants involved in this program called Project Lifeline unveiled by President Bush. It applies only to borrowers who are more than 90 days late making their mortgage payments.

The participants are Bank of America, Citigroup, Countrywide Financial, JPMorgan Chase, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo. I had a hunch, so I checked it out. Some lending institutions accept Mexican matricula consular cards. This is an ID card handed out to illegal immigrants in this country by the Mexican government. The card enables illegal immigrants to obtain loans by presenting this bogus ID instead of a legitimate, U.S. government-issued ID. Several unscrupulous lenders have been actively soliciting the business of illegal immigrants by accepting these cards.

Four of the six lenders participating in Project Lifeline, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Washington Mutual, all accept these cards, according to the National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition. So, you may ask, how about Countrywide and Citigroup? As far as I know, they don't have a history of taking these cards, but Bank of America is in the midst of a takeover of Countrywide. And, although Citigroup is not on the NIIBC's list of institutions accepting the matricula consular cards, their subsidiary, Citibank, actively solicits the business of illegal immigrants.

The Citibank angle is particularly disturbing. The San Diego Union-Tribune ran a story two years ago documenting how Citibank was using the services of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. ACORN is a nonprofit that actively seeks to connect undocumented immigrants with lending institutions who will forgo demanding a Social Security number. According to the Union-Tribune, "The local program, which uses tax identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, is similar to programs run by small lenders β€” and two state agencies β€” around the country that have distributed millions of dollars to undocumented immigrants over the past few years." The article notes that Wells Fargo had been tapping into that same market for some time.

And where does ACORN get most of its funding? According to the article, they get their money from you and me. ACORN is largely funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Understand, this was two years ago. Now look where we are. We're facing a so-called subprime crisis, but it's quite easy to see how we got here. Is it a coincidence that every single lender involved in this new Project Lifeline is catering to illegal immigrants? Certainly not. Is that to say that illegal immigrants are solely responsible for the subprime meltdown? Not at all. But, like many of our other societal ills β€” crime, spiraling health-care costs, rising education costs, etc. β€” illegal immigration is an important component. The maddening thing is that offering loans with just a taxpayer ID number or a matricula consular card is perfectly legal. It's our own government that has allowed, if not encouraged, lenders to target this particular market.

Of course, the government doesn't track how many illegal immigrants have subprime loans, but we know almost half of the subprime loans are in the hands of Hispanics, increasing the odds illegal immigrants are a disproportionate part of the problem.

In short, our neglect in dealing with illegal immigration has contributed greatly to the subprime mortgage problem, which is threatening to take our entire economy down with it.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress have rolled out yet another amnesty bill they hope to pass. It's time we demagnetize America, and a great place to start is with the banks that attract illegal immigrants with their money.
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