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Opinion: Illegals fueling mortgage crisis
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The Mother of All Bailouts has many fathers. As panicked politicians prepare to fork over $1 trillion 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 and greedy short-sellers.
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 - Loudoun County, Va., California's Inland Empire, Stockton and San Joaquin Valley, and 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 past 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, "Fifty-eight 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 illegals 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."
The chickens are coming home to roost. And law-abiding, responsible taxpayers are going to pay for it.
Michelle Malkin is a syndicated columnist and author of "Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild." Contact her at malkinblog@gmail.com.
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Posted by Brittanicus on October 1, 2008 at 4:01 p.m.
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Posted by Shorebreak on October 1, 2008 at 4:54 p.m.
Malkin is 'full of it' as usual. An exhaustive study of 1.9 million subprime loans showed "roughly 56 percent went to non-Hispanic whites. Affluent borrowers, those with annual income at least 120 percent of their given area's median income, meanwhile, took out more than 39 percent of the loans." According to the same study, "Hispanics constituted 14 percent of the borrower community and received 20 percent of the subprime loans." In other words, the vast majority of borrowers getting subprime loans -- and therefore most of those going into default -- were not Hispanics, let alone illegal immigrants.
Posted by wallflower on October 2, 2008 at 8:08 a.m.
in response to Shorebreak
My maid is from Guatemala.
Yes, she is indeed illegal.
... and yes, she owns a home right here.
Posted by Tumbleweed on October 2, 2008 at 12:55 p.m.
The blame game continues, but as for illegal immigrants; they should be sent home. To start when I call the post office they shouldn't ask me to press one for English, English should be the only language available. That goes for the drivers license test, any government transaction, business transaction, road sign as if you go to any other country this is what you get.
Posted by Shorebreak on October 2, 2008 at 11 p.m.
in response to wallflower
So, what's your point? Malkin tries to lay the whole nation's economic problems at the feet of Hispanics and insinuating that illegal Hispanic immigrants are the cause of the mortgage meltdown. That is the most rediculious accusation that has been fostered in years.
Posted by ASU55 on October 4, 2008 at 2:05 a.m.
Glenn Kadlacek or wallflower, do you realize you are committing a Felony by knowingly employing an illegal? Why would you seem to complain that she owns a home here while committing a crime & employing her?! Under the Federal Immigration and Nationality Act a person commits a felony when an individual "encourages that alien to remain in the U.S. by referring him or her to an employer or by acting as employer or agent for an employer in any way". If your going to both rail against illegal immigration while employing them you deserve the 5 years in federal prison.
Posted by wespenn56 on October 5, 2008 at 10:52 p.m.
in response to Shorebreak
Agreed. What this "woman" fails to point out is the greed the lenders saw when making questionable loans, especially if they didn't even bother to verify citizenship.
Posted by gal50 on October 6, 2008 at 2:42 p.m.
I got one of those sub-prime mortgages. In 1992, I was told I didn't qualify for a loan and in 2000, I had lenders fighting over me when I decided to buy a second larger home. I didn't even have to sell the first home, which was financed by relatives. My married neighbors must be scratching their heads over the fact that the largest home on the block is owned by a single female.
I had experienced many sleepless nights as I struggled to pay two mortgages as a single parent of two children!!! But one loan is now paid off and I'm a millionaire on paper! I should mention that I did all of this while staying at home for my children. They had no child care. I worked out of my home.
My family still has no money as every dime goes into the second, larger mortgage, health insurance, gas and food. My neighbors can all afford to hire house painters, but I had to get out the 24 foot ladder and paint my house myself, an action which was incomprehensible to my neighbors.
We are probably out of the woods now as worse comes to worst, my kids could work. I can probably retire and cover my kids college education.
So, there is a positive side to sub-prime lending. The government does need to impose regulations to ensure that it doesn't get out of hand. It shouldn't allow variable rate mortgages for poorly educated consumers who can't figure out the consequences. It should require the purchase of substantial mortgage insurance, which I was not required to purchase, but I should have been. There should be default protections such as the ability to reverse mortgage payments under certain circumstances and to suspend the mortgage and pay rent on the same property. These protections would come into play when significant mortgage payments have already been made and the family encounters job loss or severe and temporary medical illness.
Posted by Kellyimporta on October 9, 2008 at 8:39 a.m.
and the CEO for AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Wachovia are all hispanic. They are in cahoots, it's a conspiracy, give all illegal aliens mortgage loans. What a crock!
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