US Banks Provide Mortgages to Illegal Aliens

A recent story in Money magazine and on CNN/Money’s website by Shaheen Pasha says that some US banks are offering mortgages to illegal aliens. Not only are these banks engaged in such practices, but they are proud of their activities and are happy to talk to the press about them. Fifth Third Mortgage Co., a unit of Fifth Third Bancorp. and Banco Popular were cited by name. Perhaps, the immigration authorities could visit these firms and ask them why they are aiding and abetting criminal activity?

Immigration is vital to the American economy. Without the engineers the US imports, without the doctors and nurses raised elsewhere, without the farm laborers who come north to the US, America simply couldn’t function. However, legal immigration is much different than illegal immigration. It is the difference between being a guest and being a trespasser. A legal immigrant has undertaken certain obligations to be part of the body politic and is entitled to certain protections as a result. The illegal immigrant has not, and as often as not, falls victim to those willing to take advantage of that.

Of course, the banks can claim that what they are doing isn’t exactly illegal. The IRS issues individual taxpayer identification numbers [ITIN] to those who must have US tax ID but who don’t have or qualify for a Social Security Number. A Costa Rican, for example, who doesn’t reside in the US, may wish to make a land investment in America, and for this he would be issued such an ID – it is both legal and sensible. But the IRS provides these numbers regardless of one’s immigration status. This should not be.

With the ITIN, an illegal immigrant can go to the bank and open an account, get a credit card, and yes, borrow for the purchase of a home. Alenka Grealish of Celant, an independent research and consulting firm, said in Ms. Pasha's article that “Banks are counting on the fact that we do a lousy job with interior enforcement. Once you're in the country and you haven't done anything wrong, the chances of being deported are very slim. Banks are banking on that.” She also said, “There's complicity already within the government in which they're saying that they're kind of fine with these people here as long as they pay their taxes.”

The Bush administration’s efforts to create a guest worker program is on the right track, making more of the immigration that occurs legal with the two-way protections for the US and its guest workers that that would provide. But the effort has gone nowhere. Perhaps this will only change when the banks are hit where it hurts. Any bank providing a mortgage to an illegal alien (knowingly or not), should be fined three times the value of the mortgage. It isn’t the “immigrant” part of the term that is bothersome – it’s the “illegal.”


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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