In What Sense Are Illegals Illegal?
17th October 2023
John Hinderaker at Power Line.
On Thursday, the Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a joint statement that cautions banks and other lenders against “discriminating” against borrowers on the basis of immigration status. These agencies admit that no such prohibition is explicit in the relevant statutes, but nevertheless, banks should beware of federal enforcement action….
“Immigration status” could simply refer to legal aliens who apply for loans or mortgages, but that phrase is usually used to refer to illegal immigrants. Commentators, as far as I can tell, have universally interpreted this statement as a warning to banks and other lenders not to “discriminate” against people whose very presence in this country is illegal. Given the lack of any qualification to the phrase “immigration status,” and the common meaning of that phrase, I think that interpretation is correct. The fact that the statement does not even bother to distinguish between legal and illegal immigrants is telling.
I wonder when they’ll get around to characterizing a bank robbery as ‘undocumented withdrawal’.