NMN‘s Evan Nemeroff stated, “…giving roughly 5 million immigrants at least temporary relief from deportation could conceivably ease lenders’ and borrowers’ qualms about mortgages to undocumented workers who qualify with individual taxpayer identification numbers,“ or TINs.
Nemoff points to HUD’s recently appointed Secretary Julian Castro – whose clear ties to Hispanics can’t be missed – saying the president’s Thursday announcement is “an important step toward fixing our broken immigration system.”
“Even before this immigration reform was announced, nearly 11 million undocumented immigrants were eligible to qualify for mortgages using an individual taxpayer identification number,” Nemoff said, “which is assigned to them by the Internal Revenue Service for tax-filing purposes. However, very few lenders offered this product.“
Citibank and Venta Financial Group are among housing lenders who have made loans using TINs. Some in MH finance have done so too.
Republican leaders have vowed to battle the president’s immigration move as a naked power grab, since there is no legislation behind it, as was the case with allegedly similar orders by Presidents Reagan and Bush 41.
The announcements and arguments by pro-Obama Administration sources fits the pattern of seeking to carve out supporters for their move, by offering enticements: in this case, the possible promise of more home loans and sales to Latinos.
Censure by Republicans – who control both House and Senate in 2015 – budget carve outs, holding up the Obama Administration’s judicial and other appointments are among the tools mentioned to foil the hotly questioned executive immigration action.
With the president no longer facing re-election, low poll numbers for him, anemic support among the population at large – even below 50% among Hispanics for the announced amnesty for 5 million illegals in the U.S. – seems of little concern to the president and many top Democrats.
Nor does it seem to be troubling to those favoring the amnesty move that the president himself repeatedly argued since 2009 that he doesn’t posses the authority under the Constitution he now claims to have. Such statements are captured in the video shown above.
Time will tell if housing lenders – including those in MH – will bite on using TINs more to make more loans for such currently deemed ‘illegal immigrants,’ but Bloomberg and NMN suggest the perceived risks are now lower for those opting to do so. ##
HUD, finance, GSE reform and FHA related story on Julian Castro, linked here.
(Photo Credit: Julian Castro, HUD)
