Exclusive: How Many Subprime Mortgages Were Awarded to Illegal Aliens?

September 23, 2008 Exclusive: How Many Subprime Mortgages Were Awarded to Illegal Aliens?

This short news report [see my comment below] might have been a bit longer if it had been written a couple of weeks later than it was. This story is dated September 5th and deals with one of the key issues about immigration that virtually no one is willing to talk about - especially politicians and others who subscribe to the open borders philosophy and to the idea of providing the millions of illegal aliens who are in our country with a Guest Worker Amnesty Program and a "Pathway to United States Citizenship." It deals with illegal aliens using stolen Social Security numbers and false immigration documents to apply for a home loan.

The challenges confronting our nation in dealing with the millions of illegal aliens who are in our country are numerous and significant. In my opinion, the most daunting challenge, and one that is fraught with national security implications, deals with accurately identifying millions of illegal aliens who have no reliable way of proving their identities. Our officials cannot be certain as to the true names of these millions of people. There is no way of determining their true nationality. There is no way of knowing when, where or how they entered the United States. Therefore, there is no way of truly knowing if they are wanted for crimes in other countries. There is also no way of determining if they are affiliated with criminal or terrorist organizations.

Absent all of the information I noted above, there is absolutely no way of knowing with any certainty, the intentions of these millions of aliens who have shown utter contempt for our nation's borders and our nation's laws.

Certainly the majority of illegal aliens are desperate people. They are not able to live decent lives in their own countries and consequently they are willing to take incredible risks to enter our country and take jobs Americans would be happy to do for living wages under reasonable conditions.

The problem is that there is no way of separating the illegal alien who is simply seeking illegal employment and the alien whose goal is far more nefarious. And regardless of their goals, neither of them should be here in the first place.

Hope is not a strategy. Hoping that the illegal alien who appears to simply be determined to get a job and send money home is no guarantee that he is not involved in a more sinister plan. Many years ago, in the early 1980s, I was involved in a raid conducted at a diner in Staten Island, New York. We arrested nine illegal aliens from various countries, including several from Latin America. Among them was a couple from Greece (they had worked on a ship and jumped ship upon arrival in New York). One alien, a citizen of Egypt who had been employed as a dishwasher, attempted to escape arrest by running through the parking lot at the rear of the diner. He ran across the roofs of cars and it took a major effort to finally arrest him. When we were finally able to corral him and place him in handcuffs he agreed to allow us to take him to his apartment to get his passport. The passport was important to properly identify him and to facilitate his deportation from the United States.

When my partner and I entered his apartment (located a short distance from the diner), we found about a half dozen large shopping bags filled to the brim with coupons for various items we were certain he had no use for. Among the products for which he had coupons were diapers, dog food and women's sanitary products. He was a single man with no wife or girl friend, no kids and no pets.

He also had no explanation for the coupons except to lamely claim that kids in the neighborhood "played with the coupons." When we asked him which kids and how they might play with them, he shrugged his shoulders and refused to discuss the coupons.

He was ultimately deported and then, several months afterwards I watched a televised news report about how terrorists from the Middle East had been coming to the United States to engage in coupon fraud to fund terrorist attacks around the world! The "dishwasher" we had arrested was obviously one of them. I have often wondered where he is now and what role he might have played in the terrorist attacks I have read about, including the first attack on the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993 and the attacks of September 11, 2001.

The story that prompted this commentary demonstrates that illegal aliens may also be involved in criminal activities that can literally reverberate through our nation. While the news article provides the names of the couple that was arrested, I wonder what their true names and nationalities might be. This is why when police arrest a suspect they fingerprint him (her) because bad guys use changes of identity the way that a chameleon uses changes in coloration, to hide in plain sight among his intended victims!

Identity theft has been defined as being the "fastest growing white collar crime in America." It is my belief that illegal aliens contribute greatly to this epidemic that can make the honest person whose identity is stolen miserable.

I suggest you ask yourself how many of the sub-prime mortgages that have contributed greatly to the financial crisis that threatens our country may have been awarded to illegal aliens who committed identity theft as did the couple who were arrested.

In the name of national security, citizens of the United States are finding it increasingly difficult to obtain driver's licenses and other identity documents. While this inconvenience is unfortunate, I believe that these measures are necessary, especially in this perilous era. The point is that the continuing entry and presence of illegal aliens in our country whose identities are unknown and unknowable represent a threat to national security and to the safety of our citizens. That is why I wrote a commentary for the Washington Times last year as the Senate took up the issue of "Comprehensive Immigration Reform," in which I appropriately renamed that fatally-flawed legislation the "Terrorist Assistance and Facilitation Act of 2007."

Any sort of wide-spread legalization process for those millions of illegal aliens would simply provide terrorists and criminals with an opportunity to create false identities for themselves and would simply create the illusion of security. What's worse than no security? False security. Any Guest Worker Amnesty Program for illegal aliens certainly represents false security. This is unacceptable.

From the link in the article:

"Illegal couple applied for home loan using stolen SSNs

September 5th, 2008 @ 2:37pm by KTAR Newsroom

Arizona Department of Public Safety detectives arrested a couple applying for a $159,000 home loan using stolen social security numbers and false immigration documents.

Jose Ozuna Alvarez and Ana Laura Balerrama are both believed to be illegal immigrants. Investigators said they got jobs, bought as many as three new vehicles and obtained multiple credit cards using stolen social security numbers - one belonging to a nine-year-old child.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is holding the pair for deportation."

Holding FOR DEPORTATION???? What about the crimes they've committed. Deporting them before the revolving doors on our borders are effectively secured is the same as letting them go to repeat offend. An American citizen in this situation certainly wouldn't stand a chance of getting away with these crimes. And, had they not gotten caught, either of our candidates would have eventually rewarded them with amnesty. When and how are we, as Americans, going to put an end to the insanity and TAKE BACK OUR COUNTRY? NOT just from illegal aliens, but from the TREASONOUS POLITICIANS INTENT ON DESTROYING US FROM WITHIN?

Friday, September 2, 2005

Latinos’ economic power increasing’We’ve been working with the community for a little more than seven years, and now I think we are reaping what we have sown.’ Patricia Amann Branch manager, Bank of Bartlett

The economic impact of the burgeoning Latino population in Memphis may be as difficult to measure as it is obvious to see.

According to the Census Bureau, Memphis is now identified as an emerging Latino community. It is also a “non-traditional gateway” — a trend whereby Hispanics are beginning to move into new areas from the more traditional gateways like Texas and California. In fact, the largest rates of population growth are now being found throughout the Southeast and Midwest.

According to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, Tennessee ranks in the top ten in Hispanic buying power for emerging states. Latino workers were estimated to have earned $570.8 million in wages and salaries in the Memphis area in 2000, generating approximately $12.3 million in local and state sales taxes.

The Selig Center estimates that Latinos spent almost $360 million in the Memphis economy in 2000 — a number that has almost certainly increased.

A pair of studies authored by professors David Ciscel, Barbara Ellen Smith and Marcela Mendoza from the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis asserts that the large number of Latino immigrants being incorporated into the local labor market is “a development of historical significance.”

The studies suggests that no single industry has been impacted more by the influx of Latino immigrants than Memphis’ ubiquitous logistics industries, where “spot” or “day” labor has become the driving force of the regional economic growth in the sector.

The flexibility, reliability and affordability offered by new immigrants are the most desirable characteristics employers seek in the hiring process. New immigrants — particularly those who are undocumented, “socially transitory, legally vulnerable, and overwhelmingly motivated to work” — are predisposed to respond to the fickle labor demands of employers.

“In the Memphis logistics sector, employers increasingly use Latino immigrants to create new, flexible terms of employment,” the study states. “Lacking fringe benefits such as health insurance and pensions, as well as more customary benefits such as sick leave and paid vacations, Latinos may be hired briefly, cheaply, and flexibly.”

According to U.S. Census figures, there are more than 40 million Latinos in the U.S. right now, of which approximately 11 million are undocumented. The exact number of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. is impossible to measure.

In general, the growth rate of the Hispanic population in the U.S. dwarfs the growth rate of the non-Hispanic population. The Census estimates that from 1990-2008, the U.S. Hispanic population will increase by almost 140%, more than five times the growth rate for non-Hispanics.

Meanwhile, Hispanic purchasing power has followed the population growth, surging to $700 billion in 2004, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. The growth of spendable income among Hispanics has been almost triple the national rate during the past ten years, and some are predicting that Hispanic purchasing power could reach as much as $1 trillion by 2010.

On a local level, officials have suggested that Memphis may have between 125,000-250,000 Hispanics living here now. The Census says there are about 35,000, but that only represents the fraction who actually filled out and returned the Census survey.

The Bank of Bartlett has become a leader in reaching out to the Hispanic community here. Bob Byrd, chairman and CEO of the Bank of Bartlett, says by the estimates he has seen, roughly 85% of the Spanish-speaking population in America is unbanked.

But that is something he hopes to change — in Memphis, at least.

“That 85% of $700 billion means about $600 billion could come into marketplace when liquidity is an issue,” Byrd says. “The U.S. does not have the means to deport 11 million people, and even if it could, the impact on the construction industries would be devastating, and the costs of goods and services would go up.

“Banking regulators and the IRS have taken the position - wisely, in my opinion - that their role is to collect taxes and not to get into politics.”

The banking products and services that the Bank of Bartlett can offer is determined by provisions in the Patriot Act and banking regulations. The lending products took more time to develop in order to make the legal criteria.

“You can’t just flip a switch and do it,” Byrd says. “We have gone through the legal processes to reach out to as many people as we can and we have been blessed by the regulators to offer those services.”

Bank of Bartlett also has about 20 people who speak Spanish and have some familiarity with the Latino culture, but Byrd says the bank is “still just scratching the surface.” The bank has built about 4,500 deposit accounts and has issued a growing number of loans to Hispanics that fit the very prescribed underwriting criteria.

Patricia Amann is a branch manager in Raleigh and the bank’s alternative mortgage manager. Originally from Peru, Amann came to the U.S. in 1996 when she was 25. She started as teller at the Bank of Bartlett in 2001.

http://memphis.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2005/09/05/focus1.html

Jan 23,2006

WHEDA home loans for illegal aliens program shut down
Supporters of illegal immigration will be saddened to learn that a bill signed into law last year will prevent the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) from giving home loans to illegal aliens.

The article with the news is from the Business Journal of Milwaukee and the author is Jennifer Batog, but it doesn’t appear to be at their site. In any case, it’s located at MSNBC under the misleading title “Detractors kill immigrant loan program”. Those in question aren’t “immigrants”, they’re “illegal aliens”. And, if MSNBC were in favor of this I doubt whether they would have used such negative words and in a negative sense.

“It’s going to have a devastating effect,” said Maria Monreal-Cameron, president and chief executive officer of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Wisconsin.

The Immigrant Lending Program was a partnership among WHEDA, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp. [contact them] and 25 banks statewide. Participating banks included Associated Bank, Green Bay; Guaranty Bank, Brown Deer; and Mitchell Bank, Milwaukee.

Some lawmakers, including state Sen. Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend), felt the effort rewarded illegal immigrants and sent a message that Wisconsin didn’t take immigration laws seriously.

...Ending the loan program was regrettable, [WHEDA executive director Antonio Riley] said, but he added signs are emerging that the private sector may begin offering fixed-rate loans to undocumented people at conventional rates. The program also increased lenders’ knowledge and understanding of how to underwrite and process loans for people without Social Security numbers, he said.

...MGIC insured mortgages obtained through the housing authority’s program. The agency was one of the lenders participating in MGIC’s “Building a Life in America” program, which insures mortgage loans for those without Social Security numbers, said Geoff Cooper of MGIC.

...[Mitchell Bank] will continue to offer mortgages to people without Social Security numbers...

...The loan program’s supporters could reintroduce the program in future legislation, Wieckert said.

Previously: Home loans

RE: The housing loans crisis. Notice the dates of these articles:

Investors Default On Outsize Share Of Home Loans
Wall Street Journal ^ | August 31, 2007 | MICHAEL CORKERY and JAMES R. HAGERTY

Posted on Saturday, September 01, 2007 8:22:34 PM by CutePuppy

Investors played a big role in pumping up home prices during the housing boom. Now, they account for an outsize proportion of loan defaults, mortgage bankers and builders say.

A survey by the Mortgage Bankers Association found that mortgages on properties that aren't occupied by the owner -- mostly investment homes -- account for between 21% and 32% of the defaults on prime-quality home loans in Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada, states where overdue payments are mounting fast.

Home Loans to Illegal Immigrants Sturdy But Show Some Cracks
The Washington Times ^ | 10-6-07 | Miriam Jordan

Posted on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 12:30:51 PM by JZelle

Despite the downturn of the mortgage market, a type of home loan has remained surprisingly sturdy: one extended to illegal immigrants.

Home Loans for Illegal Immigrants [no Social Security number? No legal residency? No Problem!]
ABC30.com ^ | November 19, 2005

Posted on Sunday, November 20, 2005 8:23:27 AM by John Jorsett

For many, it's the American dream: owning a home. With the recent spike in housing costs, it's become more difficult for many Valley families to qualify for a home loan. But some local banks are giving out loans, and they don't even require a social security number.

More articles of this type are available via Google Search: immigrants home loans.

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