Why Is The Government Helping Illegal Aliens To Get Home Loans?

12 Jul, 2005 by John Hawkins

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Know what’s ironic? On the one hand we have local governments across the country rubbing their hands together with glee at the prospect of confiscating the homes of American citizens. Meanwhile, as American citizens are set to lose their homes, we have the government agencies giving home loans to illegal immigrants:

“Javier and Araceli Garcia, illegal immigrants from Mexico, never imagined that the U.S. government would help them buy a home.

But last year, the couple secured a $54,600 mortgage to buy the gray, 1,158-square-foot bungalow that they had been renting for eight months. The Wisconsin housing authority financed the loan. The Internal Revenue Service gave them an identification number that let them apply for it at local Mitchell Bank, which was happy to take their business.

“We thought we would never buy a home, because of our (illegal) status,” said Mrs. Garcia.

Competition for new customers is driving banks to offer home loans and other financial services to illegal immigrants — and they are getting help from government agencies, such as the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

The FDIC encourages banks to lend and invest in underserved markets regardless of customers’ immigration status.

…In Wisconsin, the state housing agency’s decision to help banks lend to illegal immigrants has set off a fierce debate in the state Senate over whether these newcomers should benefit from programs designed for legal residents. Banks in other states have started similar programs.

In the 1990s, Mitchell Bank’s old turf on Milwaukee’s South Side began to see an influx of Latino immigrants. James Maloney, the chairman of Mitchell Bank, saw the newcomers as a solution to the bank’s falling fortunes. Its assets fell to $60 million in 1999, from $95 million in the 1990s.

Maloney decided in 2002 the bank should offer mortgages even to illegal immigrants, convinced that would revitalize the area.

…Maloney made a presentation to the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, which started a pilot program for illegal immigrants in which it takes the loan risk.

“We can stick our heads in the sand and pretend these people don’t exist, or we can help them be in the U.S. with assets,” authority head Antonio Riley said.”

Let’s see, we can “pretend these people don’t exist, “help them be in the U.S. with assets,” or wait…isn’t there a third option? Isn’t that to ship these illegal aliens back to wherever they came from?

You know Javier and Araceli Garcia, the illegal aliens mentioned in the beginning of this piece? The Feds should be kicking in the door of their new home, slapping them in handcuffs, and sending them back to Mexico instead of encouraging banks to give them loans! Illegal aliens are supposed to be deported, not given money by the local government so that they can settle in. By their very presence here, illegal aliens are breaking the law, so how in the world can any government agency justify helping them to get a house?

This sort of contempt for America’s laws, which quite frankly is being shown not just by these illegal aliens but by our own government officials, is outrageous and should be universally condemned. If supporters of illegal aliens want to have an open border policy and want to treat anybody who happens to wander into this country exactly the same as American citizens, they should openly say so and lobby for changes to our laws. But instead we have advocates of illegal immigration demanding that we simply ignore the laws on the books because they’re inconvenient to their agenda. That’s not something that should continue in a nation that respects the rule of law.

Hat tip to Kim Du Toit for the story.