According to the Wall Street Journal, Bank of America, the country's second-largest bank, "has quietly begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers -- typically illegal immigrants." Customers can qualify for a credit card if they have had a checking account at the bank for at least three months and have not had an overdraft. They are required to leave a deposit and pay a relatively high interest rate.
The program is controversial. Bank of America says it will help undocumented workers build good credit. But critics say one of the USA's largest financial institutions should not be helping people who violate the country's immigration laws and are here illegally. "They are clearly crossing the line; they are actually aiding and abetting people who broke the law," says the spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
This is a quote from CEO of Bank of America, Kenneth Lewis, “"Bank of America helps build strong communities by helping people achieve their dreams. We reach for higher standards every day, in everything we do - for our customers, our shareholders, our associates and our communities, upon which the future prosperity of our company rests." There main slogan is “Higher Standards” and somehow I do not think that targeting illegal immigrants is of higher standards.
So, you may wonder why would a large national corporation do such a thing, it is money and lots of it. "If we don't disproportionately grow in the Hispanic [market]...we aren't going to grow" as a bank, a company official told the Wall Street Journal. Bank of America says nearly half of the nation's Hispanic households have one of its credit cards. They are tapping into a resource that is large and growing very rapidly and they are not doing anything illegal. You do not have to have a social security number in order to get a credit card. But, shouldn’t Bank of America not be so money hungry and knowingly give out credit cards to people who are in America illegally? Hell yes!
