Erika Hayasaki of the Los Angeles Times offers "Debit cards for immigrants". As she makes clear in her piece, those "immigrants" are almost certainly illegal aliens. And, the article doesn't read like a news report at all, but rather like an infomercial for the card. Please send an email to readers.rep *at* latimes.com with your thoughts.

The card in question is not the credit card from Bank of America, but a debit card called "Sigo". The program is "affiliated with MasterCard".

Those named as helping start the program include:
- Janice Fine (Rutgers University labor relations professor)
- Lauren Leimbach (Community Financial Resources)
- the Center for Community Change.

It's being distributed at the New Labor "worker center" (New Brunswick, New Jersey), Pilipino Worker Center (L.A.), the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California, and five other unnamed places. They want to expand that to 160 "worker centers" across the U.S.

To many Americans, the idea that major banks are attempting to profit from indirect illegal activity is extremely worrisome. Hayasaki only acknowledges those concerns very briefly and in a negative manner. In fact, illegal immigration-related concerns are brushed aside with one-half of a sentence in a 24 paragraph article:

Critics have denounced such efforts to integrate illegal immigrants into the banking and credit world as aid to criminals, but Sigo organizers worry such offers by traditional banks will take advantage of low-income immigrants.

Certainly, exploitation is an important part of this, but that sentence falsely implies that that is a much more important issue than, for instance, the massive political corruption that allows such programs.

The rest of the article reads like ad copy; perhaps Hayasaki is on the wrong beat or working for the wrong company. Allow me to suggest that she goes to work writing infomercials. First, introduce the problem:

Jose Manuel Aparicio had come up with all kinds of ways to stash his construction job wages: He slipped bills between pages of books hidden in his bedroom closet and stuffed money into an old sock in his laundry — places thieves weren't likely to look... Without a bank account, "somebody can steal it," said the 20-year-old, who came to the U.S. from Mexico three years ago. "That's it, my money is gone."

[...cue peppy music...]

Then three months ago, Aparicio applied for a special debit card created for immigrants who don't have Social Security numbers, which are required to open savings or checking accounts. They're also for people who just don't trust banks.

[...bring in the show's expert...]

A nonprofit worker center here called New Labor, which helps immigrants learn English and find jobs, in November became the first in the nation to offer the Sigo card — combining "go" with Spanish for "yes."

For the rest, turn to channel 347.