Bank Of America Credit Cards To Illegal Immigrants

Bank of America found itself at the center of the nation's immigration controversy following a report on the front page of Tuesday's Wall Street Journal that it's offering credit cards to illegal immigrants in Los Angeles.

In the wake of the media firestorm, the nation's second-largest bank told the Los Angeles Times that it complies fully with all banking and antiterrorism laws governing customer identification, which permit the use of individual taxpayer identification numbers, or ITINs, issued by the Internal Revenue Service.

Critics said that it's too easy for undocumented immigrants to receive ITINs.

"At face value the program seems to be problematic," Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, told the Times. "It seems to be lending itself to possibilities of perpetrating identity theft or creating more risk for money laundering."

It's not the first time U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank have come under fire for reaching out to immigrants with a range of banking services.

Under the Los Angeles market test, Bank Of America is offering credit cards to Spanish-speaking customers with no Social Security numbers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The credit card offering, which features a $500 credit limit, requires applicants to have a checking account with the bank for three months without an overdraft, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Bank of America reportedly tested the credit card program last year at five branches in Los Angeles and hopes to roll the program out nationally later this year.

California has the nation's largest concentration of illegal immigrants.

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