There’s the law and then there’s legalism. The law is what binds us together in a free and open society. It’s what renders justice. Legalism is the process wherein one takes on an almost fetishistic adherence to the processes underpinning the law.
The law is rational and fair.
Legalism is capricious and inherently unfair. Sadly, in the United States today, like the late stages of previous great empires—whether it be the Roman, Byzantine, or Ottoman empires—legalism has supplanted the rule of law.
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Legalizing Insanity
Relatedly, this opaque and wholly undemocratic legalism explains why the federal government is threatening banks with legal reprisals if they deny loans to people who are discovered to be illegal immigrants to the United States.
“Lenders should not deny people the opportunity to take out a loan to buy a home, build their businesses or otherwise pursue their financial goals because of unlawful bias and without regard to their actual ability to repay,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division.
Left unsaid was the fact that the individuals Clarke’s statement was referencing were not legal citizens and were breaking the law just by being in the country. But in a legalistic society, all that matters is that the process is respected.
According to Clarke and those in the Biden Administration who believe as they do, provisions found within the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) would be violated if a lender decided against offering a loan to someone simply because they were an illegal immigrant.
Of course, even that interpretation of the ECOA is absurd.
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That’s a ridiculous metric to apply here since U.S. laws apply to U.S. citizens. The very fact that illegal immigrants are, by definition, in the United States via illegal entry means that these individuals are not U.S. citizens and should not be held to the same standards as American citizens are – or be entitled to the same protections and rights that most U.S. citizens are entitled to.
When Breaking the Law Isn’t Breaking the Law
By illegally entering the United States and taking up residence in the United States, illegal immigrants are engaged in a criminal act. Lenders in the United States routinely refuse to grant loans to people with known criminal records, too. And, by definition, if someone has entered the country illegally, they have just committed a criminal act.
Therefore, by that standard, no illegal immigrant should be granted a loan … unless Washington plans to change the standards that banks routinely use on people here legally, who have previous criminal records preventing them from getting loans.
But that’s the nature of a society that has abandoned the rule of law in favor of administrative legalism. It defies all logic. The standards make no sense. To compound matters, the same people claiming that lenders cannot deny people who have entered the country illegally from accessing loans are the very same group who seek to bully lenders into refusing to do business with known conservative groups and individuals.
It’s in Laws: From Freedom to Tyranny
If the United States were still the land of laws that it has always presented itself as being, then the country’s government would not be trying to abandon any semblance of the rule of law in favor of political and administrative preferences that are totally unfair and nonsensical. They are nonsensical unless our country has truly moved from freedom to tyranny.
Under the Biden Administration’s reign of lunacy, it clearly has inched toward tyranny.
A 19FortyFive Senior Editor and an energy analyst at the The-Pipeline, Brandon J. Weichert is a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who is a contributor at The Washington Times, as well as at the Asia Times. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower (Republic Book Publishers), Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life (Encounter Books), and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy (July 23). Weichert occasionally serves as a Subject Matter Expert for various organizations, including the Department of Defense.
* ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
The Left Loves This: Illegal Immigrants Can Apply for Credit
