More on Bank of America Credit Cards (for the undocumented)

You have to wonder exactly how far the anti-immigrant minority will go to castigate the undocumented. This article from today's Washington Post revisits the issue of offering credit cards to people who may be undocumented. It appears that after the news broke last week, hundreds of Bank of American customers sent irate letters and cut up their cards and sent them back--in other words--they had a good old-fashioned hissy fit.

Don't get me wrong, I think the credit card companies should hear from their customers often about the exorbitant rates that they charge us all, and for issuing credit irresponsibly, particularly to college students and others who easily rack up thousands of dollars in debt that they should not have been issued on the first place.

In this regard, targeting the undocumented is not much different than targeting young adults with cards, after all, they are as likely to be seduced by easy credit as anyone else. As the article linked here notes, the issue here is not whether or not the person who is issued a credit card is documented or not, it's about greed. I do not think Bank of America, Wells Fargo or Citicorp are issuing credit cards as a humanitarian gesture: an undocumented immigrant's money is as green as a citizen's. This is just one more opportunity for creditors to get their hands on it.