Posted on 08/28/2003 10:29:49 PM PDT by kattracks
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, D.C., 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.
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 proof 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.
©2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.
If banks are going to accept TIN's from illegal aliens as a primary form of identification, then I would think that banks would be required to accept TIN's from American citizens too, or risk being sued for discrimination.
Ever get the feeling that Our Government NO LONGER Represents the American Citizen?
In a word, yes. Don't look for the situation to improve in our lifetime, unfortunately. This garbage just ain't going away.
Really? When I bought my first home last year, my SSN was required and they showed me a printout of my credit rating. Credit check and itemized assets were required. What do they do, pretend to check? That would have saved me a lot of trouble if I'd known that. Is the lovely Ms. Malkin telling me such checks aren't required for illegals?
Something really stinks here, and I'm not sure if it's this article, or the system.
This is absolutely incredible. Is this a mea culpa? HUD and the FEDS obviously knew that staggering numbers of Illegal Aliens were getting GOVERNMENT BACKED loans to buy homes because they REMOVED any Lawful Standard that would prohibit such aliens to apply for the loans. NOW they seem worried about what could happen if HEAVEN FORBID the Laws of this Land were actually Enforced on Illegal Aliens. The message seems to be “we can't do anything about it because HUD would go broke”.
This has all the components of High Treason. What is the end game--Amnesty for Illegal Aliens? Any high up Bush Cabinet official going to lose their job over this? Unfreaking believable.
"I don't think the federal government is willing to expose this problem for financial reasons as well as for fear of political repercussions."
Too Late, It's already out in the open. Let the heads roll.
You're kidding, right?
Bush and his whole administration are complicit!
Do you believe Bush considers malfeasance like this, in respect to illegal aliens, anything but a job well done?
Bush nominated a Cuban banker to replace an open borders advocating, pro-illegal immigration, Libertarian, puke like Ziglar, because he wanted to stop illegal immigration?
It'll be promotions, raises, bonuses and extra perks all around!
They won't be yelling "Let the heads roll." in the White House.
Karl Rove tells Bush these illegals are future RINOs, so it must be worth risking the financial futures of tax paying American citizens to buy them homes.
Bush and friends will be yelling:
"Let the good times roll!"
Maybe you could tell FlyVet and others about some of your observations and experiences over the years.
He doesn't believe this could be happening. I'll bet he's not alone in his disbelief. ;^)
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