Illegal aliens contribute to home mortgage crash
Michelle Malkin was on to them four years ago
Jewish World Review August 29, 2003 / 1 Elul, 5763
Michelle Malkin
Home loans for illegal aliens?!
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The American dream of home ownership, complete with the white picket fence, is alive and well for those who break our laws and break down our fences to get in.
Last week, the Washington Post published a rosy front-page tale headlined, "Illegal Immigrants Buy Into Homeowning Dream." The article detailed how illegal aliens in the Washington DC area are successfully hooking up with cunning mortgage brokers and complicit lenders to secure home loans. Despite federal laws making it illegal to violate the borders, overstay visas, and recruit, harbor, and encourage illegal aliens, the Post notes that the illegal alien home loan schemes are "legal."
Here we are, nearly two years after the September 11 terrorist attacks underscored the need for consistent immigration law enforcement, and the lesson continues to be ignored in the nation's capital.
The Post's heart-warming story began:
"Gerardo Cabrera fell in love with the house immediately. There was the bay window in the living room, the fireplace in the den, and - most enchanting to a man raised amid the concrete of Mexico City - the woods in the back yard. And so the auto mechanic and his wife, a secretary, decided to pay $200,000 for their own piece of suburban Gaithersburg, a classic tale of immigrants achieving the American dream.
Except for one detail: At the time, they were in the United States illegally."
While law-abiding homebuyers must supply airtight proof of identity, legal residence, and a Social Security number to lenders, illegal alien purchasers such as Cabrera (a visa overstayer who recently received a green card) need only supply a "taxpayer identification number" (TIN) issued by the Internal Revenue Service. No criminal background check is required before applying for a TIN, which many banks now accept from illegal alien customers as a primary form of identification.
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Cabrera's broker, Alma Preciado of Metropolitan Financial Services in Silver Spring, told the Post that about 10 percent of her mainly Latino clientele qualify for home loans using a TIN instead of a Social Security number. That's just the tip of the illegal alien homeowners' iceberg. The Post failed to note that Federal Housing Administration-approved loans through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development do not require lenders to obtain prove of citizenship or legal permanent residence. These FHA/HUD programs, primarily targeting minorities and first-time homebuyers, are federally insured and require minimal down payments.
A 25-year veteran of the mortgage industry in California confided to me recently: "It boggles the mind to think how many illegal aliens are homeowners in this country thanks to these programs, all fully insured by our government. Because of fear of lawsuits for discrimination I can also tell you that a lender may have a borrower who speaks little or no English who claims to be either a citizen or resident alien and it will not be questioned nor any proof required. Since FHA does not require any such documentation, a lender cannot cite their regulations as a basis for the request as they can on conventional loans."
Another easy avenue to home ownership is through the use of bogus Social Security cards. Moneylenders have no access to a verification system to check Social Security numbers before approving loans. A Department of Homeland Security investigator informs me that an ongoing federal probe of FHA/HUD-backed loans found that "a staggering number were approved to persons with false Social Security numbers." The Denver metro area alone accounted for 20,000 to 40,000 of the FHA-approved loans for suspected illegal aliens. "Even if a small percentage of the loans were foreclosed, HUD could be bankrupted," the homeland security official said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. General Accounting Office told me this week that the agency's office of special investigations plans to report on the results of the probe later this fall. But "considering the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and other large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated with illegal aliens," says my source, "I don't think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions."
America: Still the world's home sweet illegal alien home.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Michelle Malkin is the author of, most recently, "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores". To comment, please click here.
Michelle Malkin Archives
Jewish World Review August 29, 2003 / 1 Elul, 5763
Michelle Malkin
Home loans for illegal aliens?!
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | The American dream of home ownership, complete with the white picket fence, is alive and well for those who break our laws and break down our fences to get in.
Last week, the Washington Post published a rosy front-page tale headlined, "Illegal Immigrants Buy Into Homeowning Dream." The article detailed how illegal aliens in the Washington DC area are successfully hooking up with cunning mortgage brokers and complicit lenders to secure home loans. Despite federal laws making it illegal to violate the borders, overstay visas, and recruit, harbor, and encourage illegal aliens, the Post notes that the illegal alien home loan schemes are "legal."
Here we are, nearly two years after the September 11 terrorist attacks underscored the need for consistent immigration law enforcement, and the lesson continues to be ignored in the nation's capital.
The Post's heart-warming story began:
"Gerardo Cabrera fell in love with the house immediately. There was the bay window in the living room, the fireplace in the den, and - most enchanting to a man raised amid the concrete of Mexico City - the woods in the back yard. And so the auto mechanic and his wife, a secretary, decided to pay $200,000 for their own piece of suburban Gaithersburg, a classic tale of immigrants achieving the American dream.
Except for one detail: At the time, they were in the United States illegally."
While law-abiding homebuyers must supply airtight proof of identity, legal residence, and a Social Security number to lenders, illegal alien purchasers such as Cabrera (a visa overstayer who recently received a green card) need only supply a "taxpayer identification number" (TIN) issued by the Internal Revenue Service. No criminal background check is required before applying for a TIN, which many banks now accept from illegal alien customers as a primary form of identification.
Donate to JWR
Cabrera's broker, Alma Preciado of Metropolitan Financial Services in Silver Spring, told the Post that about 10 percent of her mainly Latino clientele qualify for home loans using a TIN instead of a Social Security number. That's just the tip of the illegal alien homeowners' iceberg. The Post failed to note that Federal Housing Administration-approved loans through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development do not require lenders to obtain prove of citizenship or legal permanent residence. These FHA/HUD programs, primarily targeting minorities and first-time homebuyers, are federally insured and require minimal down payments.
A 25-year veteran of the mortgage industry in California confided to me recently: "It boggles the mind to think how many illegal aliens are homeowners in this country thanks to these programs, all fully insured by our government. Because of fear of lawsuits for discrimination I can also tell you that a lender may have a borrower who speaks little or no English who claims to be either a citizen or resident alien and it will not be questioned nor any proof required. Since FHA does not require any such documentation, a lender cannot cite their regulations as a basis for the request as they can on conventional loans."
Another easy avenue to home ownership is through the use of bogus Social Security cards. Moneylenders have no access to a verification system to check Social Security numbers before approving loans. A Department of Homeland Security investigator informs me that an ongoing federal probe of FHA/HUD-backed loans found that "a staggering number were approved to persons with false Social Security numbers." The Denver metro area alone accounted for 20,000 to 40,000 of the FHA-approved loans for suspected illegal aliens. "Even if a small percentage of the loans were foreclosed, HUD could be bankrupted," the homeland security official said.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. General Accounting Office told me this week that the agency's office of special investigations plans to report on the results of the probe later this fall. But "considering the size of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Houston, and other large cities throughout the United States known to be inundated with illegal aliens," says my source, "I don't think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions."
America: Still the world's home sweet illegal alien home.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Michelle Malkin is the author of, most recently, "Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores". To comment, please click here.
Michelle Malkin Archives
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Exactly what I said in a related post a few days ago. Once again the U.S. Taxpayer is going to be funding the illegals. 0 -
$11 Trillion.
That will be the National Deficit before Bush leaves office.
Republicons.....I was one.0 -
Michelle Malkin is a fascist but she's right on this one. It's deplorable how they are letting us be invaded... yes INVADED, by Mexico. 0 -
You as an American CANNOT own property in Mexico, yet the Dims are complicit in giving illegal aliens Drivers Licenses for ID with nothing more than a Matricula card from the Mexican Embassy.
The Drivers License is then used for ID on mortgage papers, along with an unknown credit history.
Dims are responsible for the flood of illegals and their defaulting on loans that should never have been made in the first place.
Dims are responsible for giving illegal aliens the right to own land in America.
What's the trillions in deficit got to do with illegals? They suck money from our social programs, shut down emergency rooms, steal jobs from American employees, raise our insurance premiums, clog our public schools so that nobody gets an education, demand we waste billions printing everything in 2 or 3 languages, kill, rape and rob our citizens, and expect to be treated like freaking guests!
This has been going on for over 75 years now, and the Dims are the ones that have been supporting it with welfare, WIC, "anchor babies", low-income-housing, sanctuary cities, and non-profiling.
Bush had nothing whatsoever to do with the current situation, and even less to do with the recent bill introduced by Dimocraps that would have allowed illegals the free reign they so desired.
Besides, if you think that Billary or Johnny or even Algore would do anything against all those uneducated masses of humanity streaming over our borders; WAKE UP! They think the illegals will vote for them!0 -
quote:Originally posted by Flying Clay Disk
A person can buy a house in this country without being a citizen, and quite frankly I see nothing wrong with that. Just like an American citizen can buy a house in Mexico without being a Mexican.
Unless they have changed it snice my MIL retired and moved to cacun
you cant own land in mexico unless your a cititzen and you also have to show that you make a certin amount of money before they let you live there.0 -
He leased it for 99 years, he did not buy it. Every couple of years there will be a story where some Americans PO their landlords in Mexico (Read they want more money) and the Mexican government kicks their a$$ back to America. "Boo-Hoo I lost my home in Mexico"
Dean
quote:Originally posted by Flying Clay Disk
I know a guy who just bought a condo in puerto vallarta. I'll have to find out how he did this.0 -
"Just like an American citizen can buy a house in Mexico without being a Mexican. Citizenship has little to do with this problem."
I have spent a lot of time in Mexico and I too was told, "No se puede" for a Gringo to buy land down there, but you could get a long lease.
My point in posting this thread is not that the mortgage collapse is CAUSED by illegals per se, more so that the fact that illegals can get mortgages backed by my government is an outrage, and is another symptom of the screwed-up mortgage industry. The illegals contributed to the problem.
What percentage of the foreclosures will be on illegal Mexicans? I don't know, that statistic will never be published. I imagine it is small, less than five per cent I would guess.0 -
While I am sure that illegals are a small contributing factor, the entire mortgage industry was run by folks who made Big Oil look like heros to the working class.
"The price of the home is $500K Mr Smith (typical home price in SoCal). You and your wife have a combined annual income of $80,00 along with a $15,000 down payment. This makes things tight but not to worry folks, We'll get you in to that house this weekend"!
"Are you sure we can afford this? Our bank said we needed higher incomes and a bigger down to qualify".
"Don't listen to those banks folks. They are stuck in that old world mind set and don't understand the current progressive finance programs that we can offer. You'll do just fine and we won't even start the payments for two full months"!0 -
Yes, it's the illegals and the "lending industry's" fault. Not the people whose eyes were bigger than their wallets. Not the people who made poor, no, downright stupid borrowing decisions, not the people who couldn't do math, not the people who chose to live on credit rather than income, not the people who made these choices freely and openly when other options were available. Nope. It's everybody else's fault but ours.
It was Bush and the illegals and the lending industry who held a gun to the heads of these poor and otherwise intelligent people and MADE them take these "creative" mortgages and then raised the monthly payment beyond their means to intentionally create a credit crunch, anxiety in the stock market, and jitters about our economy overseas. They did this so as to distract from the illegal war in Iraq and its failures and to expedite the construction of the SuperMegaHyperUltraGinormousSovreigntyErasing Highway.
Crafty b a s t a r d s.0 -
1) I sure like to see the demographics of the mortgage brokers/lenders who have financed these people, and thus screwed seriously with our economy.
2) I think that there is no doubt that homes purchased by criminal mexicans are by far the greatest contribution to Global Warming that there is.
Doug0 -
If those damned Muslims had not purchased all of those homes over the past decade as part of a terrorist plot to destroy our economy we would not be in this mess today. 0 -
i say let the Banks take the fall for doing busniness with them, if they go under let them, its there fault. but then again i'm dreaming 0
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