Kill the bailout: Illegal immigration and the mortgage mess

[BloodEclipse]

By Michelle Malkin • September 24, 2008 07:49 AM

My syndicated column today tackles the bailout angle no one wants to talk about: Open borders and the home loan debacle. You’ve heard a lot about Fannie/Freddie and the minority lending shakedowns, but you haven’t heard most commentators/analysts on either the left or the right talk about the massive illegal alien mortgage racket — a topic I’ve reported on for the past five years. That’s because fault lies at the feet of the crime-enabling banking industry and the ethnic lobbyists and the illegal alien-enabling Bush administration.
They screwed us. Now, they want us to fork over a trillion dollars.
Screw them.
Kill this bailout.
And I second Mark Krikorian: Credit is not a civil right. It’s not a civil right for illegal aliens. For foreign banks. For American banks. For anyone. The bailout proposal, as I noted earlier, now includes student loans and auto loan debt. Will our tax dollars next cover foreign student loan debts? Illegal alien in-state discounted college tuition debt? Where and when will it end?
Oh, but pardon me. I’m just being, you know, an ideological purist.
***
Illegal immigration and the mortgage mess
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2008
The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers. As panicked politicians prepare to fork over a trillion dollars in taxpayer funding to rescue the financial industry, they’ve fingered regulation, deregulation, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Community Reinvestment Act, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, both Bushes, greedy banks, greedy borrowers, greedy short-sellers, and minority home ownership mau-mauers (can’t call ‘em greedy, that would be racist) for blame.
But there’s one giant paternal elephant in the room that has slipped notice: How illegal immigration, crime-enabling banks, and open-borders Bush policies fueled the mortgage crisis.
It’s no coincidence that most of the areas hardest hit by the foreclosure wave – Loudon County, Virginia, California’s Inland Empire, Stockton, San Joaquin Valley, Las Vegas, and Phoenix, for starters — also happen to be some of the nation’s largest illegal alien sanctuaries. Half of the mortgages to Hispanics are subprime (the accursed species of loan to borrowers with the shadiest credit histories). A quarter of all those subprime loans are in default and foreclosure.
Regional reports across the country have decried the subprime meltdown’s impact on illegal immigrant “victims.” A July report showed that in seven of the 10 metro areas with the highest foreclosure rates, Hispanics represented at least one-third of the population; in two of those areas – Merced and Salinas-Monterey, Calif. – Hispanics comprised half the population. The amnesty-promoting National Council of La Raza and its Development Fund have received millions in federal funds to “counsel” their constituents on obtaining mortgages with little to no money down; the group almost succeeded in attaching a $10 million earmark for itself in one of the housing bills past this spring.
For the last five years, I’ve reported on the rapidly expanding illegal alien home loan racket. The top banks clamoring for their handouts as their profits plummet, led by Wachovia and Bank of America, launched aggressive campaigns to woo illegal alien homebuyers. The quasi-governmental Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority jumped in to guarantee home loans to illegal immigrants. The Washington Post noted, almost as an afterthought in a 2005 report: “Hispanics, the nation’s fastest-growing major ethnic or racial group, have been courted aggressively by real estate agents, mortgage brokers and programs for first-time buyers that offer help with closing costs. Ads proclaim: “Sin verificacion de ingresos ! Sin verificacion de documento !” — which loosely translates as, ‘Income tax forms are not required, nor are immigration papers.’”
In addition, fraudsters have engaged in massive house-flipping rings using illegal aliens as straw buyers. Among many examples cited by the FBI: a conspiracy in Las Vegas involving a former Nevada First Residential Mortgage Company branch manager who directed loan officers and processors in the origination of 233 fraudulent Federal Housing Authority loans valued at over $25 million. The defrauders manufactured and submitted false employment and income documentation for borrowers; most were illegal immigrants from Mexico. To date, the FBI reported, “58 loans with a total value of $6.2 million have gone into default, with a loss to the Housing and Urban Development Department of over $1.9 million.”
It’s the tip of the iceberg. Thanks to lax Bush administration-approved policies allowing illegal aliens to use “matricula consular cards” and taxpayer identification numbers to open bank accounts, more forms of mortgage fraud have burgeoned. Moneylenders still have no access to a verification system to check Social Security numbers before approving loans. In an interview about rampant illegal alien home loan fraud, a spokeswoman for the U.S. General Accounting Office told me five years ago:
“[C]onsidering the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and other large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated with illegal aliens, I don’t think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions.”
Chickens coming home to roost. And law-abiding, responsible taxpayers are going to pay for it.

Haven't heard this anywhere else yet. Wow. I keep hearing them say we have to fix this soon, but a rush to fix without all the facts could be worse than no fix at all.

[Prometheus]

Originally Posted by BloodEclipse

Haven't heard this anywhere else yet. Wow. I keep hearing them say we have to fix this soon, but a rush to fix without all the facts could be worse than no fix at all.

You should listen to Ron Paul more often

Call your congressman,,, NOW! oppose the bailout(s).

[BloodEclipse]

Originally Posted by Prometheus

You should listen to Ron Paul more often

Call your congressman,,, NOW! oppose the bailout(s).

This is on my State Represenitives page.

Mike Pence
A CURE WORSE THAN THE DISEASE

Why I Oppose the Bailout

Our financial markets are in turmoil and the Administration was right to call for decisive action to prevent further harm to our economy but nationalizing every bad mortgage in America is not the answer.

The Administration's request amounts to the largest corporate bailout in American history. Congress should act, but should act in a way that protects the integrity of our free market and protects the American taxpayer from more debt and higher taxes.

To have the freedom to succeed, we must preserve the freedom to fail. Any solution to our present crisis must preserve our essential economic freedom.

Congress should delay consideration of any legislation until the facts and competing solutions can be fully debated, consider alternatives to massive government spending and figure out how to pay for the solution through budget cuts and reform instead of more debt or taxes.

Congress must not hastily embrace a cure that may do more harm to our economy than the disease of bad debt

Before any bailout is enacted, Congress must set itself on an unalterable path to truly overhaul these Government Sponsored Enterprises from the top down and hold those accountable, in and out of government, who drove them, and our financial sector, to the brink of bankruptcy. Some important work is already underway, but additional reforms are needed. Even now, we read that the Treasury Department is using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to purchase many of these bad mortgages while it seeks the authority to purchase them all. Congress should also ensure that these GSEs can no longer pose a systemic risk to the entire economy while placing them on a brisk schedule to be fully private companies with no guarantee of taxpayer support in times of trouble. And Congress should immediately repeal the Affordable Housing Fund, which will actually siphon off capital from these under-capitalized entities, in order to fund left-wing, third party organizations.

Next, Congress must consider all available options to put our nation's economy back on its feet. There are no easy answers but there are alternatives to massive government spending.

Indexing the Capital Gains tax to inflation (which the Treasury Department can do without any help from Congress), or suspending it for one year, would release an enormous amount of capital into our economy. Passing an energy bill that lessens the price of gasoline at the pump through more domestic drilling, wind, solar, nuclear and conservation would bring relief to family budgets and create American jobs. Establishing an entitlement reform commission to develop bipartisan solutions to the crushing weight of entitlements would strengthen the American dollar.

These and other alternatives to a massive federal bailout must be fully considered and debated before Congress acts.

Finally, any new expenditure of taxpayer dollars should be paid for with fiscal discipline and reform. If Congress decides to spend nearly 1 trillion dollars on a corporate bailout, it must find budget savings to prevent that cost from being passed along to the American people.

We must address this crisis with forethought, creativity and fiscal discipline. Protecting the American taxpayer from higher debt and taxes and renewing our belief in the power of the free market must be our guide.

[jeremy]

My 2 cents worth...
How much money would we generate if we deported all the illegal aliens?

[CarmelHP]

I have wondered how so many Spanish speaking Central American immigrants could afford those $40K brand new trucks (always with Illinois plates) around here. Now I know, finance and flee.

[BloodEclipse]

Originally Posted by jeremy

My 2 cents worth...
How much money would we generate if we deported all the illegal aliens?

Last estimate I saw was they cost us $385 Billion annually.

[jeremy]

Ok, so let me get this straight. They cost us 385 Billion annually just being here. So in 2 years we would have enough cash saved to pay for the bailout, right.

Next how in the hell do you get financing without showing your legally here!!!!!!!! And why are we not placing these banks and financers in jail for this.

[flagtag]

Originally Posted by jeremy

Ok, so let me get this straight. They cost us 385 Billion annually just being here. So in 2 years we would have enough cash saved to pay for the bailout, right.

Next how in the hell do you get financing without showing your legally here!!!!!!!! And why are we not placing these banks and financers in jail for this.

Bank of America was handing out credit cards to the illegals. I'm sure they were passing out "free" auto/housing loans as well.

Want money? Just go to Bank of America and claim to be here illegally and hold out your hand(s).

[BloodEclipse]

Originally Posted by flagtag

Bank of America was handing out credit cards to the illegals. I'm sure they were passing out "free" auto/housing loans as well.

Want money? Just go to Bank of America and claim to be here illegally and hold out your hand(s).

Yeah they were known as no doc loans.
Plus BOA allowed illegals to use Consular Cards and Drivers Licenses as ID for other type loans.

[flagtag]

Originally Posted by BloodEclipse

Yeah they were known as no doc loans.
Plus BOA allowed illegals to use Consular Cards and Drivers Licenses as ID for other type loans.

Yeah. I can't figure out why our country is in so much financial trouble, can you?!