http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/13/news/co ... ostpopular

Report: Credit card pitch to illegal immigrants
Bank of America aims to provide credit history, card for people who lack a Social Security number, according to a published report.
February 13 2007: 6:15 AM EST

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Bank of America Corp. has begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, typically illegal immigrants, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

In recent years, banks across the country have been offering checking accounts and even mortgages to the nation's fast-growing ranks of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Hispanic, the paper said, adding these immigrants generally have not been able to get major credit cards.

The new Bank of America card is open to people who lack both a Social Security number and a credit history, as long as they have held a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, the Journal said.

Bank of America tested the program last year at five branches in Los Angeles, and last week expanded it to 51 branches in Los Angeles County, home to the largest concentration of illegal immigrants in the U.S., the Journal said.

The bank hopes to roll out the program nationally later this year, the paper said.

A Bank of America spokesman was not immediately available to comment.
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I don't even know where to begin on this. From a business perspective, Bank of America made a smart move by widening their market. Obviously they've seen other means of businesses of profiting off illegal immigrants, so they thought to themselves "why not us as well?". I blame the government for not intervening fast enough...which is hilarious because I recall being constantly ridiculed on this message board by some of you extreme liberals for me mildly supporting government intervention in certain businesses.
For the record, I'm not biased and I gladly accept both liberal and conservative views.

i think we can all agree that bank of america's true goal is to administer 24% interest charges on people that they know will not be able to make payments. fuck you bank of america and fuck you legislators who allow something like this to happen.

I hope you realize that the same conservatives that talk about how much they hate illegals are the ones doing things like this. They may dislike illegals, but they sure as hell still want their money.

I'll listen to both sides, but this is clearly a democratic loss.

All I have to say is fuck illegal immigrants, send them back where they came from. Whatever political party that puts me in agreement with, so be it.

When I was in high school and before Bush got elected, the illegal immigration issue was one of the biggest things pushing me towards being republican. I still considered myself a democrat (libertarian really) for the most part, but this is one of many things they can't get right imo.

Can you maybe explain why this is the fault of Democrats?

...and what did the Republicans do any different for the past 12 years?

I think it's more accurate to say that the Republicans are "pro-business" and pander to those that benefit from (exploit) cheap labor. The whole "they do the jobs that Americans won't do" is bullshit, as is their promises to "crack down" on illegal immigration. That being said, one of the positives of a Democratic controlled congress is that there is a much better change at getting comprehensive immigration reform passed. While I don't agree with all of the aspects of the Senate's proposal (which is pretty much in line with the President's), I think it is the best way to solve a problem that needs to be fixed. For every illegal immigrant that is "stealing" a job from a legal citizen, there are probaby 100 that are being ripped off by their employer.
In regards to the Bank of America thing, I would love to know what interest rate they will be charging the people who sign up for these cards. The BOA suits who devised this plan are like vultures swooping down on these people who think that obtaining said card is another step to becoming a citizen.

Isn't this a show of small government and just allowing business to widen their market?

Don't really see much wrong with this.

I see plenty wrong with the credit card industry, but for the life of me I have no idea why people care so goddamned much if someone is on a 3,000X2,000 mile piece of land "illegally." OMG that Mexican has American Express, we're doomed.

21.24%

Because all they are doing is occupying space, right?

Once they're driven into poverty by that intrest rate, there will be nothing more for them here, so they'll have no choice but to sulk back to Mexico. Apparently, Bank of America is going to succeed where the Minutemen have failed.

That's pretty cold. Send them back where they came from? heh. I'm not sure where your bloodlines originate from, but the vast majority of the United States population is not native. As I recall, most of us are here because we kicked out the Native Americans (aka slaughtered) and then took a bunch of land from the Mexicans for ourselves. Fuck illegal immigrants? Man, that's just harsh.

Yep, my bloodline comes from Italy and Germany in the 1910s and 1930s respectively. They weren't illegal.

And yeah, it is cold, and I know it's a complicated problem. But the bottom line, at least to me, is that if they come over illegally they should be sent back. Not fuck them as people, but fuck them because of the awful way we are dealing with them.

I want to see immigration done in an orderly fashion, so we can make sure that all people are going to fairly contribute to society, and the bad guys can be kept out.

However, I'm not convinced that the gov't (via either party) really wants to create a quick and orderly system. Whatever reason you to attribute to that (garner votes, cheap labor), go ahead.

It's tough to blame the immigrants themselves who are just trying to better their life from a presumably shitty one in Mexico.

I have no problem with immigrants, as long as you do it the legal way, just like my parents did. Register yourself in the system just like everyone else.

It's just kind of a messed up way to perceive it, that's all. I dont even mean you specifically, because you're certainly not alone in seeing it that way.
Immigrants came over, killed most of the Native Americans. Took most of their land. Then later on immigrants went to war with the mexicans, took a bunch of their land. I'm guessing the mexicans at the time didnt see the invaders as "legal" immigrants. So, we should probably give them back California and Texas, right? Well, Texas at least. That's probably a good compromise. They can have Texas.



I'm not sure I follow. So are you really saying "fuck us"?

i'm an immigrant and my CC has 0% interest.