Lawmakers are lashing out at Bank of America Corp. over its new program to offer credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers, saying it creates a dangerous loophole for terrorists and illegal immigrants.
“After September 11, we were told that money was the lifeblood of terrorists, and that we should do everything possible to block their access to financial resources,” Tancredo said in a statement. “Today we are hearing a far different message: Bank of America, it’s everywhere terrorists want to be.”
“If an individual wants to get a credit card, they can get that in their home country,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told FOX News. “This is something that is of deep concern to me, that Bank of America would choose to market to those that have chosen to break U.S. law to enter this country and then they would give credit to them,” Blackburn said. Bank of America stands by its program, saying that it complies with all U.S. banking and anti-terrorism laws.
The program was tested last year at five Bank of America branches in Los Angeles. It was expanded to 51 branches in Los Angeles County last week.
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 Wall Street Journal 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 Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday (Feb.13, 2007).
Latino advocates welcomed the card as a way for many Hispanics to access mainstream financial services needed to build wealth. Critics say the product is another example of a big business profiting off illegal immigrants that restraint the social infrastructure.
The U.S. Hispanic population increased 19 percent to nearly 42 million between 2000 and 2005, while the non-Hispanic population increased less than 1 percent, according to U.S. Census data. The U.S. has an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, most of them from Mexico and Latin America.
The credit cards come with a high interest rate and an up front fee. But the bank defends the program, saying it complies with U.S. banking and anti-terrorism laws.
“These people are coming here for quality of life, and they deserve somebody to give them a chance to achieve that quality of life,” Latin American card operations Director Brian Tuite said.