Illegal Immigrants Get Home Loans!

From Sign On San Diego:

A major U.S. bank has funded its first home loans to undocumented Mexican immigrants in San Diego County in a move that targets a lucrative, wide-open market while providing new grist for the debate over illegal immigration.

The local program, which uses tax identification numbers instead of Social Security numbers, is similar to programs run by small lenders – and two state agencies – around the country that have distributed millions of dollars to undocumented immigrants over the past few years.

“There is a huge untapped market out there, but it is a controversial program,” said Sarah Lumbert, office director of San Diego's ACORN Housing Corp., part of a national group working with Citibank to provide tax-ID loans.

ACORN members, advocates on housing issues for low-and moderate-income people and Citibank have quietly recruited applicants in the county for more than a year. Their program has ramped up slowly because applicants need to establish credit and hunt for an affordable home.

But the market is vast and the level of interest in the program is high, especially since the loans typically offer below-market interest rates, down-payment assistance and require no mortgage insurance.

Wells Fargo recently seized on the market, joining Citibank as the only nationwide banks offering tax-ID loans. Wells Fargo started its pilot tax-ID loan program in Los Angeles and Orange counties in December.

Chuck Lemoine, a Wells Fargo senior vice president, said providing tax-ID loans is legal and that reaching out “is not only the right thing to do, it's good business.”

So they are here illegally, and banks think it is not only legal, but good business, to give home loans to people in this country illegally? Let us not talk about the ethical problems with this, but the business side is questionable. What happens if they get deported? I hope they realize our tax dollars won't go to help bail them out; or at least I hope not. What happens if the new immigration reform bill passes getting tough on employers? I foresee illegals out of work, so how will they pay a mortgage? I think we should call and let our elected cockroaches know they need to amend any immigration bill to include making giving loans to those in this country illegal, illegal.

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