November 12, 2006

Illegal Mortgages

The Sunday edition of the Memphis Commercial Appeal reports on some local banks that are making mortgage loans to illegal immigrants, happily undermining U.S. immigration laws. It ought to be illegal federally in this country to sell mortgages to people who are in the country illegally, but it isn't.

Perhaps one of the many newly elected or re-elected members of the state legislature who ran promising to be tough on anti-illegal immigration will propose legislation that would make it illegal in Tennessee. I'd hope the law also provided for government forfeiture of property purchased by illegals, with the lien holder losing all rights to recover their loan. That would put a damper on the purchase of American property by illegal immigrants, and might convince a few of them to return to their home country and begin the process of emigrating to the U.S. legally.

Given that Tennesseans overwhelmingly view illegal immigration as bad for the state, such legislation ought to pass easily, as long as the lobbyists for the banking and real estate industry are ignored. But, then, given that Tennesseans overwhelmingly view illegal immigration as bad for the state, you would think the banks and the real estate companies wouldn't be selling houses to illegals, or financing them...