← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Blond Knight
Thread ID: 16183 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2005-01-04
2005-01-04 21:35 | User Profile
Will the madness ever end?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ [url]http://www.themilwaukeechannel.com/news/4044775/detail.html[/url]
Mortgages Made Easier For Wisconsin's Illegal Immigrants Brokers Welcome Move; Some Lawmakers Riled
POSTED: 12:18 am CST January 4, 2005 UPDATED: 12:26 am CST January 4, 2005
MILWAUKEE -- In a pilot program described as the first of its kind, an agency created by the state government is making it easier for illegal immigrants in Wisconsin to obtain mortgage loans.
Immigrants who do not have Social Security numbers -- a common requirement for loans ââ¬â can use an alternative government-issued tax number to get financing for new homes, under the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA) program.
Many holders of the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) are living and working illegally in this country, even though they pay taxes.
Some say the Wisconsin program is an example of how groups and companies are starting to recognize the potential market of immigrants. Critics say the program provides a reward for those who are violating immigration laws.
Some banks already issue mortgage loans to illegal immigrants, but WHEDA is believed to be the first and only quasi-government organization to buy such loans from the banks, said Geoff Cooper, director of emerging markets for MGIC Investment Corp., and Gary Acosta, president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.
"Anyone will tell you the real growth in home ownership in the state, in the country, is in the minorities and immigrant market," said Antonio Riley, executive director of WHEDA, a public corporation created by the Wisconsin Legislature in 1972.
The agency, which funded more than 4,000 home mortgages last year, underwrote 87 mortgage loans to ITIN holders since the program started in April. Six banks in Milwaukee and Madison participate in it, and the authority has talked about expanding it to Racine, WHEDA spokesman Ron Legro said.
But state Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, is threatening legislative action if WHEDA doesn't kill the program, which he contends rewards people for breaking the law.
"It is an insult to border guards and immigration officials who are trying to enforce the immigration law," he said. "It is an insult to people who are waiting patiently to enter the country legally."
Financial experts say WHEDA's program was simply a reaction to the country's changing demographics. Estimates of illegal immigrants in the country range from 10 million to 12 million, Acosta said.
"If this becomes a standard in the industry it could have a multibillion-dollar positive impact on the economy," he said.
Some private banks already write mortgage loans and open bank accounts for ITIN holders. MGIC, a Milwaukee-based issuer of private mortgage insurance, started insuring ITIN loans last fall.
Using the tax numbers allows banks to know the true identities of immigrants, who might otherwise go to predatory lenders or use false Social Security numbers to get mortgage loans, MGIC's Cooper said.
ITIN was created in 1997 for the Internal Revenue Service for foreign citizens who needed to pay taxes in the United States but could not obtain Social Security numbers. The government has issued about 7 million ITINs as of last year, the IRS said.
ITIN gained currency in the financial market after banks realized the potential of the immigrant market.
About 70 percent of immigrants from Latin America are "unbanked," said Michael Frias, community affairs officer at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Even the Patriot Act, created to fight terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, acknowledged ITIN is an acceptable form of identification for banks, said Frias, who spearheaded a Midwest task force to extend banking services to immigrants.
Milwaukee's Mitchell Bank was among the first in the nation to have an ITIN loan program. The bank on Mitchell Street served European immigrants in the neighborhood in the early 1900s. As years went by, Hispanics replaced the Germans and Poles, said James P. Maloney, the bank's president and chairman.
"As the neighborhood changed, we ultimately decided we had to change or move," he said.
The bank now hires Hispanic employees, has all documents in Spanish and is authorized to help immigrants obtain ITINs. It created credit history for immigrants who often don't have any by examining their utility bills, rent payments and the money they send home. The ITIN loans performed better than conventional loans, Maloney said.
The home ownership rate on Milwaukee's largely Hispanic South Side is less than 20 percent, and the immigrant market is "more than we could ever handle," Maloney said.
But the bank has limited capacity for ITIN loans, because companies that usually buy mortgage loans from banks refuse to underwrite these loans, saying they are too risky, Maloney said.
The WHEDA program fills that void.
"It's very forward thinking on their part," he said. "They couldn't be doing anything better for our neighborhood."
But Acosta said unless the major players enter the market, the WHEDA program will have minimum impact on the industry.
"Unless Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and FHA (Federal Housing Administration) start doing this type of loans, it's only going to have a marginal impact."
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press.
2005-01-04 23:15 | User Profile
I would say this is shocking - but I'm more amazed by the fact I'm not shocked at all.
It's hard to ever imagine myself hanging an American flag again.
2005-01-05 17:15 | User Profile
My reaction is much the same as jay's.
Who subsidizes your mortgage, gringo?
2005-01-09 05:19 | User Profile
Hey cheeseheads!! Ya gots ta turn off the televitz & Packer Boolyball games long enough to see who is picking your pockets.
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The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online [url]www.jsonline.com[/url] Return to regular view
Original URL: [url]http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/jan05/290872.asp[/url]
Surprise, surprise: A new OIC scandal Posted: Jan. 6, 2005 Spivak & Bice
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice E-MAIL | ARCHIVE
Investigators from a slew of federal agencies are probing the recent purchase by a top official at the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee of about $45,000 worth of cell phones, using OIC resources, for apparent shipment to Nigeria.
The surprises at the beleaguered non-profit agency just keep coming.
"I'm thoroughly surprised, disappointed and angered that this could happen - that anybody would use OIC for their own personal gain," interim President Tyrone Dumas said Thursday.
The person at the center of the probe, former Chief Financial Officer Cordelia Ekwueme, refused to answer questions, except to refer us to her lawyer, Marty Kohler. Kohler declined to discuss the matter.
"No more comments, goodbye," said Ekwueme, a native of Nigeria who left OIC last week after seven years with the agency. Dumas said her departure was unrelated to the current investigation. 47810OIC Troubles Previous Coverage Archive: Previous coverage of troubles at the Opportunities Industrialization Center of Greater Milwaukee
According to Ekwueme's bio on the OIC Web site, she "welcomes the review of OIC-GM's financial records, knowing that all reports justify the faith funding sources have placed in the organization to administer monies in the public interest."
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic declined comment when asked about the investigation, which is in its early stages.
Dumas said he first learned of the latest round of allegations Wednesday morning after prosecutors contacted OIC lawyer David Cannon, summoning him and top agency officials to a sit-down at the federal courthouse.
Involved in that one-hour session were Biskupic, representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dumas and the Rev. Fred Crouther, chairman of OIC's board. Dumas said he was given a grand jury subpoena for all records dating back to Aug. 1 relating to the purchase of more than 500 cell phones. The records are to be delivered by Tuesday.
"I don't know the full extent," Dumas said. "Something did happen, and it's not good."
Dumas said his agency is cooperating with investigators and also is looking into the allegations itself. He said the initial review showed OIC did purchase the cell phones late last year - after he took over the agency.
"It was on our invoice, I know that," said Dumas, a former Milwaukee Public Schools official.
Dumas said it isn't clear whether other employees may have been involved. Also not clear is why OIC was buying the phones or if Ekwueme was planning on reimbursing the agency.
All Dumas knows is that this was a lousy way to start the new year.
"My stomach has been rolling for two days," he said.
Last year wasn't too hot for the social-service agency either.
Longtime CEO Carl Gee was convicted of conspiracy for his role in a kickback scheme involving former state Sen. Gary George, who is serving a four-year sentence in federal prison for his own misdeeds. Gee and ex-OIC lawyer Mark Sostarich are expected to be sentenced this year.
More recently, state officials have responded to OIC's woes by lopping $23 million from the agency's $39 million contract to operate the state's welfare reform program in Milwaukee County this year. The agency also is losing its state contract for weatherizing homes this year, a pact worth nearly $11 million in 2004.
Those cuts have forced Dumas, who took over the agency on Oct. 25, to lay off about one-third of its employees.
Initially, Dumas said Thursday that he wasn't sure how big a deal the cell-phone inquiry was. But he sat up and took notice during his meeting with the feds.
"It's bigger than anything I ever thought it would be," he said.
According to Dumas, U.S. Customs officials first raised suspicions about the massive shipment of phones to Africa, setting off the chain of events leading to the grand jury subpoena.
Dumas said his internal investigation will be much broader than just the phone purchase.
"I want to go back and see if there's anything else that might be tapped into," he said.
The onetime candidate for county executive, a campaign that first put him in the public spotlight, said he's grown weary with all the surprises in his new job.
"Sometimes I feel like Gomer Pyle: 'Surprise, surprise,' " Dumas said. "I don't know if I should scratch my head or rub my eyes."
So, if he knew then what he knows now, would he have left the security of his MPS post to take the helm of the OIC ship amid all the icebergs?
"I don't know," Dumas said, pausing. "It would have been the toughest decision I would have made."
From the Jan. 7, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel