One of the nearly-overlooked aspects of the immigration issue is the role that banks play. That's surprising since around 20 billion dollars flows from Mexican citizens in the U.S. back to Mexico each year. Some Caribbean countries (such as Haiti) get an even greater percentage of foreign income from such money flows. And, a good portion of that flow is from illegal aliens, and the money they send home was earned illegally.

While illegal immigration is presented by its enablers in the media and in advocacy groups purely as a human issue, it's actually more a matter of big money.

Plenty of banks (and the Federal Reserve) want to tap into the money that's sent from the U.S. to foreign countries, whether the money was earned illegally or not. And, plenty of banks want to tap into related markets such as opening savings and checking accounts for illegal aliens or giving them home loans. They know the money was earned illegally, but they don't care. And, they find plenty of corrupt politicians willing to help them profit from illegally-earned money in exchange for campaign contributions or other benefits.

See the entries below for specific examples of banks trying to profit from illegally-earned money in one way or another. One easy thing you can do is ask The Nation why they spent a year investigating Lou Dobbs at the same time as ignoring Wachovia, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and all the rest.