The Los Angeles City Council has voted to consider turning the L.A. Public Library card into an ID card that illegal aliens can use. No matter how the plan is spun, it all boils down to one of two things (or a combination): money and power.

The cards will allow illegal aliens to open bank accounts, something that will obviously allow financial institutions to profit and capture new customers. Those receiving the cards and their families will render power to the politicians promoting the card. This isn't about anything other than money, race-based power, or a combination of both.

The politician leading the effort is L.A. City Councilman Richard Alarcon; whether he's doing this just to gain race-based power or because of donations he's received isn't known.

Exactly which companies want to make money from this isn't known. But here are a few similar programs already in place:

* San Francisco: the original such effort, this involved major banks and the Federal Reserve (see the link)

* Oakland: operated by SF Global (founded by Raul Hinojosa, brother of Maria Hinojosa)

* New Haven, Connecticut: pushed by a Mexican government-friendly NGO and a mayor that might have had a financial interest in a bank that was involved in their scheme; billions of dollars are sent by illegal aliens in the U.S. back to Mexico via remittances, helping prop up that government

* "Bank on L.A.": an earlier effort (which also involved the nexus of race-based power and money).

* "Bank on California": pushed by Arnold Schwarzenegger; involved Bank of America and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

See immigration banks, Federal Reserve, and unbanked for even more on this issue.

How do you stop efforts like this? By following the money and exposing those who want to profit from illegal activity (including government officials and government agencies). For instance, contact those who pretend they do real investigative reporting and publicly challenge them to follow the money in cases like this.

Another way is to turn those who sympathize with the Occupy Wall Street movement against such plans. Those sympathizers who support such plans would be useful idiots for corrupt banks that want to profit from illegal activity; point it out to them. If you find OWS leaders or mainline liberals supporting such schemes, work to turn their followers against them.

One sure way not to fight these efforts is to engage in the standard fiscal conservative / Tea Parties practice of pretending this is just another "liberal", California thing. That's despite this being an example of raw capitalism in action: banks see a new market and want to profit from it, even if the money was earned illegally. Point out to them that few supposed-conservatives lifted a finger to stop the previous efforts listed above, and suggest that they rise above turning their backs on their fellow citizens yet again.