Once 7NEWS began asking questions about her home loan, ICE arrested Claudia Hernandez for being in the country illegally. Posted on 02/24/2005 10:39:46 AM PST by ETERNAL WARMING
Undocumented Immigrants Buying Homes With Fake IDs Government-Backed Loans Going To Those With Phony Social Security No.
POSTED: 11:04 am MST February 23, 2005 UPDATED: 12:42 pm MST February 23, 2005
More Americans are homeowners than ever before thanks in part to government-backed loans that help young homeowners get into their first house. But with a government system so focused on homes sales, is any agency checking to make sure that undocumented immigrants are prevented from getting such loans? Who is verifying identification?
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7NEWS Investigation: Illegal Immigrants Getting Government Home Loans
How is it that an undocumented immigrant can use a phony Social Security number to get a government-backed loan to buy property in Colorado? 7NEWS Investigator John Ferrugia has been tracking cases involving Federal Housing Administration loans and said the homeland security implications are dramatic.
With phony documents, terrorists or drug dealers can launder money, set up sleeper cells, or support smuggling operations in residential communities anywhere in the state. 7NEWS' has found that there is no government agency that has responsibility to verify the identities of anyone buying real estate.
"The Department of Homeland Security doesn't have the authority. They are not doing it," said Bryan Cunningham, a former CIA officer and national security council lawyer who is now a corporate consultant on homeland security issues.
"HUD, the FHA, and the other lenders and mortgage refinancers at the federal level haven't been told to do it in law and they don't have the money to do it. And certainly, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can't possibly be in the business of doing this themselves," Cunningham said.
7NEWS found two homes in Thornton that were purchased by two women who obtained FHA loans. Their names are listed as the owners and the mortgage holders. But when we checked the credentials of one of the women, Claudia Hernandez, we discovered that she likely had used phony identification to obtain the loan.
Once 7NEWS began asking questions about her home loan, ICE arrested Claudia Hernandez for being in the country illegally.
We began looking into her background and that of her husband, Roberto Hernandez, after he was charged in the hit-and-run killing of 32-year-old Justin Goodman last July in Thornton.
Hernandez and his wife are undocumented, yet they are living in a home backed by an FHA loan.
"We have found a lot of packets that do not contain the proper Social Security numbers, the W2s on them have been falsified," said Jeff Copp, the regional special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
He cannot discuss any specific case but he said such cases generally involve a broad conspiracy by those who profit from the sale.
"To have a false number -- a Social Security number -- and have the realtor be able to take them all the way through the application process, there has to be something that that realtor or the mortgage company is doing to doctor those documents to show this is a legitimate Social Security number," Copp said.
Once 7NEWS began asking questions ICE arrested Claudia Hernandez and other associates for being in the country illegally.
Federal sources now confirm they are investigating how she and another undocumented immigrant were able to get the FHA loans.
7NEWS wanted to talk to the people who issue the FHA loans at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD officials were clearly concerned about our findings and refused an on-camera interview. Officials wouldn't answer our questions but in a written statement, they said in part, "FHA loans are originated and processed by FHA-approved lenders who certify that the mortgage is eligible for FHA mortgage insurance ... If irregularities are revealed, appropriate action is taken."
"The system itself is designed to facilitate the purchase of property. It's not designed for law enforcement," Copp said. "It's the underwriter and the mortgage banker that are looking at those papers to make sure that they are true and correct, because they are the ones that are responsible for the information they provide to HUD."
Copp said HUD has to take the underwriter's and the mortgage banker's word for it.
"You've got the Social Security card. Then you got the license, now suddenly you have a piece of real estate in your name that somebody can go find on the Internet and it just establishes your legitimate identity. And if it's not legitimate, you are helping the terrorists be able to be here and be asleep and wait for bad things to be done," Cunningham said.
Most FHA-approved lenders and brokers are not involved in this type of activity. They are honest and they do verify identification.
But for those who do not, there is no system in place to check or catch the fraud. Federal officials know it and everyone in the industry knows it.
One federal agent told 7NEWS that we've just got the tip of the iceberg, that this happens every day.
Does anyone know what a person with horrible credit (horrible!) who has 15K to put down for a home, can do? This person has been trying for years to get a home and he's hitting 35 now. Any suggestions would be appreciated. This person lives in Miami. If a knowledgeable freeper wants to freepmail me thats ok.
>>I do some real estate in Vegas, so I can tell you ditto is exactly right, observed it personally.<<
Would you tell us your story....without names of course. (unless they have been prosecuted and sentenced.)
GO! 7NEWS!!!
We need more like YOU!!!
ICE, the illegals' are in your court!
When I was living in Brooklyn, the Chinese would pay $400-$600K for dumpy row houses in blue collar neighborhoods. They would ALWAYS pay in cash.
ABOLISH FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC! There is NO reason for the government to subsidize homebuying! Of course, I am preaching to the choir.
they're just buying the homes no one else wants/sarcasm
I guess the banks think its a win win for them - they get the interest as long as the illegals make their mortgage payment, and the house lock stock & barrel if & when the feds deport the home owners.
I agree with you.
If that is true and a lot of those people got spooked by the growing objection to ILLEGAL immigration and bailed out, what would it do to the market (and prices) in that area? Would other home owners suddenly become supporters of "family-oriented, hard-working, tax-paying border crossers?"
I agree. I am in the mortgage business, and, yes I do some loans that Fannie and Freddie buy. However, without them, there are plenty of lenders that are funded by private investors (non-conforming loans) and they do not always have higher rates as is often assumed. In fact, if FNMA and FHLMC dropped out of the picture, the FREE MARKET would fill the void (and probably do better anyway).
You want my story. Just doing real estate, bumped into a potential client who was a union construction worker and I later found out 8 year illegal. He would have qualified just fine for the loan, my loan person had no problem and told me it was done all the time. His girlfriend/wife was only recently "immigrated", working at Jack in the Box, couldn't speak any english.
There's a lot of complicity on different levels - the banks and HUD are looking the other way, accountants are falsifying tax returns, agents (who might be illegals themselves) are likely overseeing and directing the whole scam. I've heard of illegals who have developed a good credit history actually renting out their SSN (and therefore their credit history) so that someone else can use it to buy a home.
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