Embracing Illegals - Companies are getting hooked on the buying power of 11 million undocumented immigrants
Inez and Antonio Valenzuela are a marketer's dream. Young, upwardly mobile, and ready to spend on their growing family, the Los Angeles couple in many ways reflects the 42 million Hispanics in the U.S....
But Inez and Antonio aren't your typical American consumers. They're undocumented
immigrants [criminal illegal aliens] who live and work in the U.S. illegally.
When the couple, along with Esmeralda, crossed the Mexican border five years ago,
they had little money, no jobs, and lacked basic documents such as Social Security
numbers. Guided by friends and family, the couple soon discovered how to navigate
the increasingly above-ground world of illegal residency. At the local Mexican
consulate, the Valenzuelas each signed up for an identification card known as
a matrícula consular... Scores of financial institutions now accept it
for bank accounts, credit cards, and car loans. Next, they applied to the Internal
Revenue Service for individual tax identification numbers (ITINS), allowing them
to pay taxes like any U.S. citizen -- and thereby to eventually get a home mortgage.
Today, companies large and small eagerly cater to the Valenzuelas -- regardless of their status. In 2003 they paid $11,000 for a used Ford Motor Co. van plus $70,000 more for a gleaming new 30-foot trailer that now serves as headquarters and kitchen for their restaurant. A local car dealer gave them a loan for the van based only on Antonio's matrícula card and his Mexican driver's license. Verizon Communications Inc. also accepted his matrícula... Matrícula holders like the Valenzuelas are "bringing us all the money that has been under the mattress," says Wells Fargo branch manager Steven Contreraz.
For more than two decades, America's illegal aliens have been the target of national
attention -- largely for negative reasons.... Yet all the while, farms, hotels,
restaurants, small manufacturers, and other employers have continued to hire the
undocumented [criminal illegal aliens] with little regard to the federal laws
intended to stop them.
... In the past several years, big U.S. consumer companies -- banks, insurers, mortgage lenders, credit-card outfits, phone carriers, and others -- have decided that a market of 11 million or so potential customers is simply too big to ignore....
Wells Fargo has half a million matrícula accounts, a majority of them, they acknowledge, opened by unauthorized aliens [criminal illegal aliens] who lack regular residency or citizenship papers....
Other companies, such as Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT ), won't discuss the status of their customers but explicitly target Hispanic newcomers -- more than half of whom are estimated to enter the U.S. illegally, according to a new study by Pew....
The corporate Establishment's new hunger for the undocumenteds' [criminal illegal aliens] business could have far-reaching implications for America's stance on immigration policy, which remains unresolved. Corporations are helping, essentially, to bring a huge chunk of the underground economy into the mainstream. By finding ways to treat illegals like any other consumers, companies are in effect legalizing -- and legitimizing -- millions of people who technically have no right to be in the U.S....
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