[Andy'smom]

Forget the bank accounts. What About the MORTGAGES they give to the illegals?

[DeeOhGee]

A spokeswoman from Wells Fargo & Co. said the bank decided to start accepting matricula consular identifications in 2001, after police agencies in Texas reported too many Mexican immigrants were walking around with all their savings in cash.

Is that really a problem? Seems it helps identify 'em...

[mtbopfuyn]

Hmm, so that's why the Wells Fargo bank manager admitted they don't check signatures or IDs. We couldn't close our account with them fast enough.

[Issaquahking]

I walked into a Wells Fargo yesterday to cash a check. They had a Banner announcing that up to $3,000 USD could be sent to Mexico, for $8 per day! This was in ST. George, Utah) Freepers, don't bank at Wells Fargo! I am now stuck looking for a new bank that is nationwide (all 50 states) besides Bank of America (Tides foundation contributor).

[seemoAR]

I think the only genuine humorous part of the whole article was the bank saying they only did that to protect the illegals. I wonder how many people really believe that. We all know what the real reason was.

[DumpsterDiver]

"Some folks think we had this as part of the strategic business plan, but we did it in response to a community need," said Dolores Arredondo, the bank's vice president of multicultural communications B.S. in Los Angeles.

Oh, sure, you all are just a big group of kindhearted strangers looking out for the welfare of the community. [pronounced kah-MEW-nity]

[rawhide]

How does this practice hurt this old lady? This is such a non-issue protest.

[heleny]

police agencies in Texas reported too many Mexican immigrants were walking around with all their savings in cash.
...
"We actually did this in May 2001 after police in Austin, Texas, approached us asking us to find a way to work with people who were storing cash."

The foreigners could have bought travelers checks if they were afraid of losing "all their savings" while carrying it everywhere. Or, they could have opened bank accounts with their passports.

Wells Fargo branches accept the matricula consular card as a primary identification and require a second identification, such as a passport or Social Security number, before a customer can open an account, Arredondo said.

Do they verify that the SSN is real and not stolen?

"We believe it is unsafe and unwise for people not from our country to bank in our institutions," said Robin Hvidston of Upland, who organized the protest. "We feel like (Wells Fargo) is putting our country in jeopardy."

Lots of foreigners bank with the US legally without matricula consular cards. Essentially, they're investing in our country.

The problem is that the banks take the risk of extending loans to illegal aliens who use easily-obtained and possibly fraudulent matricula consular cards. That risk may be spread over all the customers of the bank, although home loans in a rising market probably aren't as risky. Also, the illegal aliens may be terrorists who can use the borrowed capital to finance terrorism here, with no intention of returning the money.