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October 5, 2007
Local Impacts of the Current Immigration Climate; Or, Be Careful What You Wish For!
Two recent news stories reveal some of the negative local impacts of the national craze to rid the nation of undocumented immigrants.
AP reports that the superintendent of the Irving, Texas school district said that some immigrant parents had pulled their children (possibly U.S. citizen children) from school over fears that they or their families would be deported. The Mexican Consulate has advised people to avoid driving through Irving, a Dallas suburb, in response to the Irving Police Department’s participation with federal immigration authorities in efforts to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. The Irving police have turned over more than 1,600 people to immigration officials since the program began last year.
In Virginia, Prince William County's home prices and its Hispanic population rose in tandem during the first half of this decade, a result of a home-building frenzy that became a powerful magnet for immigrant laborers. Undocumented immigrants had little trouble finding jobs and not much trouble getting mortgages. According to the Washington Post, Prince William today "has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the region, with a glut of unsold, depreciating homes. And its elected officials have embarked on one of the most ambitious efforts in the nation to drive out and deport illegal immigrants. That combination -- an excess of housing and new anti-illegal immigrant policies -- is likely to exacerbate the county's weak real estate market, agents and lenders say. Regardless of one's views on immigration, they say, simple arithmetic dictates that if a lot of residents leave the county, the housing meltdown will only worsen."
KJ
October 5, 2007 | Permalink
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Comments
"Prince William today "has some of the highest foreclosure rates in the region, with a glut of unsold, depreciating homes. And its elected officials have embarked on one of the most ambitious efforts in the nation to drive out and deport illegal immigrants."
If your contention is that these illegal aliens could somehow pay their mortgages after the sub-prime fiasco, you're wrong. It wouldn't have mattered whether they were appreciated or driven out, they still coundn't have afforded them. The main stream media is full of speculation that illegal aliens would be badly hurt but the recent crisis, and their predictions have come true. I'm hardly amazed, however, that you'd spin this to mean that the recent raids are the main cause of the problems in the real estate business in Prince William County.
In a responsible banking market, no illegal alien would never have received a loan for a house, as he never had the money for a down payment, was subject to immediate deportation under our laws, and his balloon mortgage had a high potential for what has recently come to pass. The real estate business, the illegal aliens, and the banks are now reaping the whirlwind for their for their bad judgments. The influx of poor and uneducated illegal aliens in this country, and the willingness of banks and the real estate business to aid and abet them is actually partially responsible for the current sub-prime rate difficulties. If this huge poor and undercapitalized group of people had been prevented from entering the country in the first place, as is required by immigration law, greedy banks, real estate brokers and housing construction firms wouldn't have had the large pool of customers that have tempted them to take the actions that have put them in their current fix.
Posted by: Horace | Oct 5, 2007 6:43:28 AM
One more thing. Since the housing construction business is in a slump, and illegal aliens are commonly employed in that business, it is likely that many of them in Prince William County are now on the streets looking for work and not in a position to pay a mortgage. They say that there's no honesty in the illegal immigration debate, and they're right, and it applies to both sides of the argument.
Posted by: Horace | Oct 5, 2007 7:01:28 AM
The slumping housing market will result in far more self-deportations than any county ordinance or state law. The coming general recession will produce even more pronounced results. Unemployment via recession and what to do with guest workers under these conditions has never been addressed by illegal alien supporters. If, as supporters say, illegal aliens won't go home under pressure of our laws, what would make us think that guest workers will go home after becoming unemployed? Their supporters would still fight for their right to live here, and we'd back to square one.
Posted by: George | Oct 5, 2007 3:30:34 PM
