RSSImmigration Can Not Find Them But Bank of America Sure Can
Back in the day, it was hard to get a credit card and having one was a sign of respectability and status. Then these same cards became mainstream with college students guaranteed so they would have another layer of debt to fight through when they left school.
Now, Bank of America has found that everyone has a credit card and is looking to expand their market. Who is left, but the illegal immigrants. All they have to do is have a checking account for 3 months and not bounce a check and they will qualify for a credit card courtesy of Bank of America.
So lets review. Sneak into the country. Get free medical care. Get free education. Work off the books, pay no taxes. Open a bank account (which I always thought needed a drivers license). Don’t bounce a check for 3 month and get a credit card.
Man, when I come back I want to be an illegal alien.
In recent years, banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to the nation’s fast-growing ranks of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, the paper said, adding these immigrants generally have not been able to get major credit cards.
The new Bank of America card is open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, the Journal said.
Bank of America tested the program last year at five branches in Los Angeles, and last week expanded it to 51 branches in Los Angeles County, home to the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Journal said. via Reuters.com
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28 Responses to “Immigration Can Not Find Them But Bank of America Sure Can”
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I don’t understand how these can be made available to people who lack a Social Security number.
Anyone ever hear of 9/11?
Oh, yeah … that was more than two weeks ago. Sorry.
If al-Qaida hears about this, they must be laughing fit to bust. After 9/11 this nation scoured the world for secret money transfer operations … now the terrorists can stick our credit card companies with the bill.
Not that all, or most, or even many illegal immigrants are or would be terrorists. But … ah, well, what’s the use?
Richard
In our area, illegals can get mortgages.
What is bank America ( oxymoron name btw) gonna do when they make the money and go home? Ooops, yeah, they will just hit the rest of the legal Americans with the bill.
BOYCOTT BANK AMERICA.
OUR FOUNDING FATHERS ARE FLIPPIN IN THEIR GRAVES.
BTW, WHAT’S TO STOP SOMEONE WITH BAD CREDIT TO CLAIM TO BE AN ILLEGAL AND OPEN UP ONE OF THESE ACCOUNTS?
when you come back you can wash my dishes for 6 bucks an hour as well. you can also be subject to racist slurs and intolerent bigots. i just don’t get this debate, were our founding father not illegal immigrants to begin with? isn’t everyone in this nation from some other nation? are you really worried about health care and education? this kind of vitrol is simply nonsense.
“So lets review. Sneak into the country. Get free medical care. Get free education. Work off the books, pay no taxes. Open a bank account”
free medical care? in which state is that?
free education? As if our education system was worth jumping over a fence…
work off the books – at REAL jobs REAL americans don’t want to do…
pay no taxes? what about sales tax? the lottery?
open a bank account… business as usual. Free market or black market, money is still money. Why fight it?
gmoney…
Let me decide tomorrow I am not going to pay taxes for schools or property or income.
Oh, and I will show up at the emergency room and expect treatment for free because I know that you can not ask my status.
My world would shatter in a million pieces and likely face jail time.
And now the other impediments that out there that motivate people to do things legally are being removed.
Anarchy is sexy when you have no responsibilities, but when you are in a country of laws and they are blown away, the game gets pretty nasty.
Tom
What incentive is there for would-be residents of or workers in the United States to follow our laws, as they (and we) are supposed to if there is no penalty for violating them? And what message does our continued indifference to these violations send?
I have nothing against immigrants … I’ve worked abroad for ten years, and studied abroad … but always obeyed the laws of the host country. Never did I think that I could flout the laws, there or here, with impunity.
Without control of our borders, how can we even begin to talk about security?
In California, as an example, they most definitely can get free medical. All that they have to do is show up at the hospital, they cannot be refused. They get free education, the school district of Stockton is on its last rope due to the large number of students. They live multi family to a residence putting a strain on all services. This has all been well documented. In years past, their numbers were a lot smaller, now the numbers are so large that cities like Stockton are being pushed to the wall. Some schools in the LA unified district are only about 50% US Citizens. These are real problems. However B of A certainly has the right to make profit. The bank accounts give the IRS something to look at as well.
The first immigrants came here legally, had to stay at Ellis Island for quarantine and a sponsor, the sponsor vowed to provide a job and be fiscally responsible for the immigrant. There is a difference, being legal and not.
What is the deciding factor to benefits of social security, education and medical, without paying into the system? What if the good taxpayers say enough now and decide they want the same benefits as the illegal, without paying into it?
The dissent is because the burden is upon a specific group to support the masses.
What do you say to those who are patiently waiting in the legal turnstyle?
Here’s how you solve illegal immigration: Mandatory minimum jailtime for any CEO whose company hires a single illegal alien.
Watch those jobs dry up in a heartbeat – and watch those illegal aliens have no incentive to come over here.
Of course this will never happen, because big business and especially big agriculture makes way too much money off that cheap illegal immigrant labor.
Just be aware that when pundits yell about building walls and stuff, they are yanking your chain. They know what the source of the problem is and how to go about solving it. But the solution would affect big business, so somehow it never gets mentioned.
And when they talk about terrorism and illegal immigration, the pundits are really yanking your chain – because all but one of the 9/11 hijackers were here LEGALLY.
http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch12.htm
That’s just how it is.
Sigh. It’s always the simplistic argument with the right-wing. Oh those freeloading illegal aliens! Living that high life, digging ditches for a pittance, and sending half of that back to their destitute family back home. Darn them to heck! I want that kind of fabulous marginal existence! Whoo hoo, living with 7 other people in a one-bedroom apartment with two jobs is the life for me! Ignoring laws to keep my family fed is so fun! Whee!
Jim pretty much has the right of it, methinks. Conservatives can waste their breath with indignant chest-beating rage, but I hope you don’t think your wall is actually going to get built. The political will to enact the Tancredo dream did not exist even when Republicans had complete sway.
Instead of squealing that somebody’s stealing from ya (ignoring that illegals pay sales tax, and often payroll tax without ever collecting SS at retirement), how about some grown-up consideration and solutions that work to our benefit. And acknowledgment that this is Latin America’s problem, too.
But I guess it’s just easier to be Ferris Bueller’s sister.
Binah
Did you forget that there is identity theft in this quotation, no, but your prolly feel that is a victimless crime. Yeah until it happens to you.
Tourists pay sales tax too.
if the guest worker program cannot be passed, what is the next best way to track our ‘illegal’ guests…..hmmmmmmmm????????????
I often here the anti-immigrant crowd crow about how good the illegals have it and how they wish they could get all the benefits of the illegals while avoiding all the onerous burdens of us legal folk.
So, what’s the problem? Wanna be illegal? Nothing could be easier: reach into your pocket, take out your wallet, tear up you social security card, cut up you driver’s license, your credit cards, and any other form of ID (remember the passport) that would identify you as a legal resident of the US. Come harvest season, show up at the nearest tomato or lettuce field, or peach orchard and go to it! Tell them you Juan from El Salvador, or Boris from Bulgaria, or whatever.
Nothing could be easier than becoming undocumented. You just have to throw away your documents! Then you can get all that free stuff that the illegals get and avoid all the taxes that we legals pay.
Make sure to drop us an e-mail to tell us about the high life you’re living!
I see a disconnect that nobody is ever willing to address in this argument. If we have the free flow of goods and services with our North American partners (NAFTA), why don’t we have a free flow of labor to go along with the free trade? If we are allowed to ship jobs elsewhere where they will work for half the price, why aren’t those people allowed to come here to look for a better paying job? And don’t explain that they can do that legally, because we are letting less aliens into our country than ever before and those people let in are not your “run of the mill” field workers!
I’m confused– presumably people in other countries get credit cards. Since when is American citizenship a pre-requisite for engaging in the world economy?
LegalHuman – sorry but there a whole lot more it then that. first of all once your in the federal tax system you can never get out. Second of all your only addressing part of the argument. The other part is that they take jobs from hardworking Americans. I know first hand, my husband is in construction and it is getting harder and harder for him to find jobs, that pay him what he is worth. Because he is only one man and wants to be paid fairly. Why hire one hardworking American for $20 an hour when you can hire 5 illegals for the same and get the job done faster. (note i said faster, not better). The bottom line is we actually do live the way they do, my husband and I work long hours and paycheck to paycheck. We struggle to make ends meet. When there is no work for him, but because we are legal and at the end of the year make enough to at least pay our bills we don not qualify for any public assistance, despite the fact that we have 3 kids. On top of all that WE pay our taxes. Figure that. I think the point people are tryign to make is at the end of the day some of are working as hard as them, but despite he fact that we pay taxes, don’t live 7 to a house and we are Americans we have none of those special considerations that the illegals do that would at least qualify us to have some sort of health care for our children. Most construction jobs do not come with health benefits.
december-star, I feel for you and your husband.
I do hope you realize that the only way to curb illegal immigration is to go after the people who are giving them jobs, and give something real like jail time for the CEO’s who know what they’re doing but still hire illegal workers.
Any other solution is ignoring the source of the problem – they’re here for jobs. More guards at the border won’t stop it, any more than it stopped booze from Canada during prohibition.
This is why illegal immigrants are welcome in this country and why the corporations that hold sway on the government don’t want the laws changed: Money. Simple as that. Illegals are easier to exploit for money.
Post as many misguided rednecks at the border that you want, won’t change anything while there’s a buck to be made.
What do you care? I don’t understand why this bugs you.
m-Who are you talking to? Many have stated there reasons for caring, if you cared to read you would know that. I certainly posted mine.
Funny, I imagine if you asked them they would prefer to come back white men.
Maybe, and then maybe they would understand our outrage.
Of course, you’ll only come back as an illegal alien if you want a life a modest luxury; if you REALLY want to live high on the hog, you’ll come back as an inmate in federal prison serving a 20-year sentence. because every good Republican knows they have free room-and-board, free cable, free health care, and access to a spa. Now THAT’S the life! Why don’t Republicans espouse the measures suggested by Jim, i.e., penalizing large corporate employers that exploit illegal immigrants on a mass scale? Because what Republicans really care about is expressing their hatred for wetbacks, not stopping illegal immigration. Pissed off that illegal immigrants are entitled to some measure of free health care? Here’s a novel idea: support universal healthcare for all Americans, not hunting down illegal immigrants to make sure they die of neglect.
Universal health-care…now i can dig that…lol Nice one legaleagle..not in our lifetime….but oh how i wish…sigh
Just by reading most of your comments I can tell that the majority of you people voted for the republicans. So why are you even complaining about a situation that was passed by republican party. Money is just that … money!!! These bigshots in corporate would give credit cards to convicts if it meant a salary increase. I work for the bank and all I deal with all day is “close my account! I dont want to deal with BOA anymore because of the illegals!” and ita all the people that have these “illegals working for them doing the work that they would never do. Bunch of hypocrits!!! ANd these “illegal aliens are paying taxes, hello tax id number!!!! jeesh its so frustrating that its 2007 and we are still dealing with such crap Everybody just shut the hell up , live and let live , get over yourselves. your no better than anyone else.
Boycott Bank of America for giving credit cards to illegal aliens. Why are they giving credit to people that don’t even have Social Security numbers? How Un-American! What do you think about paying higher interest rates to people that may go home and default? What about people that are not traced by national credit trackers like TRW? Sounds a little unfair to us Americans. What do you think about the illegals getting special and preferential treatment over you, the American citizen?
Take your money out of the Bank of Illegal Aliens.
Join the Bank of America Boycott at
http://www.bankofamericaboycott.com
The man organizing it, William Gheen, is at http://www.alipac.us
JOIN THE BOYCOTT !
Don’t be the last American with your money in that bank!
Chesh
Everyone seems to miss the point that this is my country. I own it. My people have paid the price for generations to build it. We have a culture. Everyone in the world does not have a right to come to the USA. Mexican immigration is out of control and has personally cost me untold thousands in wages and opportunities,as well as underwriting their other costs. We are not better off for having them here. They are stealing from us in conjuction with the illegal employers. They both belong in jail and it may yet happen. If Mexico is so good, why do people cross burning deserts to leave? Why do we want so many Mexicans here that we need to flee the same culture? My bet is Canada will put a fence up faster then we have. Face it, the people leaving Mexico are not even wanted in Mexico. The Mexican government does not want them or they woudl stop them. They arrive as undesireables. The American people have spoken; we don;t want them either. Build a fence and allow the employers to be sued by the illegals for the back wages.