Posted on 08/09/2005 6:33:00 AM PDT by hattend
Silvia Avalos, a hairstylist, and her husband, Jose Luis Avalos, a busboy, are among the people Mancera is talking about. They were tired of spending their money on rent each month but didn't want to use fake Social Security numbers to buy a home.
After friends told them they could buy legally, they found a two-bedroom condo northeast of San Francisco for $280,000. They moved in as soon as escrow closed.
"We saw it as an investment," Silvia Avalos said. "While you are here, you have somewhere to live that is yours. And if you return home [to Mexico], you can sell it."
Another prospective buyer, Aaron Sanchez, was pre-approved for a $200,000 loan after taking a class sponsored by ACORN, an advocacy group for the poor, on how to make offers and apply for mortgages. The 32-year-old illegal immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico, has worked at the same furniture company in the San Gabriel Valley for 14 years. He wants each of his two children to have a room. It is a luxury, he knows, that will be hard to afford.
"I think I can find a house," Sanchez said, "but a small house."
The opportunity to get people like the Avalos and Sanchez families into the market begins with the IRS, which is happy to collect peoples' taxes, regardless of their immigration status.
Nearly a decade ago, the IRS began giving out Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers so people without Social Security numbers could pay taxes. Since then, more than 8 million applicants have received numbers, and about 2 million are used annually on tax returns.
The IRS knows illegal immigrants are using the numbers to get mortgages.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Yep, working in a furniture company is one of those jobs that Americans just won't do.
"Citibank is the largest financial institution in the world," said Gary Acosta, a co-founder of the Latino real estate group. "They are interested in the business opportunity. They think it is the right thing to do. But they are probably not interested in getting involved in the public debate that's taking place right now."
Acosta said that also, the bank probably wants to test the loans before advertising and opening the floodgates.
Damn, Citibank is an enabler.
So much for the 'illegals pay taxes, too' line of BS.
They don't sound so poor to me. I thought Bush was keeping the poor down & homeless?
Don't you love how a hairdresser and a busboy can qualify for a $280,000 mortgage?
Why don't they tell the truth, there are 16 adults living in that house.
Just lovely..............my hsuband and I had to jump through I don't know how many hoops just to get a $55,000 mortgage and illegals are bieings handed ones for $200,000.
someone tell me what is wrong with this picture?
Citibank needs to be investigated.
I'd like to know how a busboy and a hairdresser qualify for a TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLAR home loan.
A busboy.
A hairdresser.
I don't care if they are legal or illegal, that doesn't sound right.
Well, Citigroup is just doing what the government itself is sanctioning. It is the policy of Fedgov to allow considerable undocumented immigration, thus creating a market, so why on earth shouldn't business be expected to cater to that market?
Folks who think we are going to ever see tens of millions of illegal latin americans deported are living in a fantasy world. I just think we are lucky Mexico and central/south america is not muslim, unlike the european expanded labor pool primary source.
Exactly
Lets see :Illegals get hospital care. they get Social Security. They get resident rates at college and free education for their kids while they are here. Now they get home loans/ Why bother being legal?
/sarcasm
I think I need to get some help from ACORN.
Is the American taxpayer guaranteeing those loans? Can't imagine lenders making this a common practice otherwise.
It's called giving the country away.
A hairdresser and a busboy qualify for a $280,000 loan?
Gads, I had to do the usual hoop-jumping to get the loan for my abandoned bank-repo fixer-upper for $146,000, and ONLY if I could show proof that I already had the mean$ to fix it up BEFORE I bought it.
Something's wrong with this picture...
Yeah...that kind of perplexed me as well...unless they're savers and put %20-25 down.
Or it's going to be a meth factory.
all the federal government has to do is pay local athorities $50 each for every illegal alien they hand over to INS, and millions of them would be rounded up in short order.
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