Opinion
u.S. Foreign Policy led to Border Crisis
“Challenging People to Shape
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The Skanner Newspaper, established
in October 1975, is a weekly publica-
By Bill Fletcher, Jr.
NNPA Columnist
I
have been increasingly con-
cerned by the near hysteria in
connection with the Central
American immigrant children who
have attempted to enter the USA,
fleeing from poverty, crime and
violence. The political Right in the
USA is trying to make this the
defining moment in their attacks
on the Obama administration,
playing to the worst and most
xenophobic sides of the U.S. pub-
lic. The Obama administration,
true to form, has done a very poor
job in responding to this insanity.
They have particularly avoided
saying something that could
change the entire tenor of the
debate. It goes something like this.
The immigration from Mexico
and Central America cannot be
understood outside of understand-
ing U.S. foreign policy and,
specifically, the relationship of the
U.S. towards Mexico and Central
America. Continuously, since the
19th century, the USA has inter-
fered in the internal affairs of
Latin America and the Caribbean.
This has included direct invasions,
e.g., the Dominican Republic in
1965; coups, e.g., the 1954 ouster
of the Guatemalan President
Arbenz; the promotion of insur-
T RANS
A FRICA
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
gencies, e.g., the Contra war
against the Sandinista government
of Nicaragua; blockades, e.g.,
Cuba, Haiti (in the 1800s); and
colonialism, e.g., Puerto Rico. As
a result the entire region has been
destabilized for more than a centu-
ry. Added to that is that there
exists a proliferation of U.S.-pro-
must add the economic domina-
tion of the region by the U.S.
This, most notably, includes
NAFTA which destroyed Mexican
agriculture and resulted in a mass
migration of Mexicans to the
USA.
In order to address immigration,
we must come to terms with the
role of the United States in Latin
American and the Caribbean. We
cannot continue to act as if there is
no correlation. We cannot contin-
ue to act as if the USA can avoid
responsibility for the depth of the
crises in these regions and simply
say no to migration.
Yet, this is what most of the
Republican Party and many
Democrats seem to want to do.
In order to address immigration, we
must come to terms with the role of
the United States in Latin American
and the Caribbean
duced weaponry that has shifted,
over time, from political battles to
battles among and between vari-
ous crime families.
To all of this, of course, one
None of this is to suggest that the
immigration crisis lends itself to
easy solutions. What it is to sug-
gest, however, is that people
would rather stay in their own
countries as opposed to migrating.
That means that the U.S. can and
should provide the necessary sup-
port to countries that are
attempting to stabilize and grow. It
should not be promoting or
endorsing coups, as it did as
recently as 2009 in the case of
Honduras, or as it implies in its
relationship to the Venezuelan
opposition. It needs to be cooper-
ating with the governments of
Latin American and the Caribbean
on the basis of mutual respect
rather than imposing what it sees
as solutions, a factor that has con-
tributed to the near civil war
situation involving criminal gangs
in Mexico.
While the U.S. political elite,
and much of our population,
would rather forget history and
ignore the role of the USA in the
crimes against the peoples of Latin
America and the Caribbean, if we
want solutions, we need to bite the
bullet, so to speak, and come to
terms with our own role.
There actually is no alternative.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a racial jus-
tice, labor and global justice
writer and activist. He is a Senior
Scholar with the Institute for Poli-
cy Studies. Follow him on
Facebook and at www.billfletcher-
jr.com.
Consumer Finance Protection Bureau
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By Charlene Crowell
NNPA Columnist
S
ens. Elizabeth Warren and
Jeff Merkley championed
creation of CFPB to curb
financial sector abuses
For the second time in as many
years, the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) has
fined a major payday lender. On
July 10, Director Richard Cordray
announced that one of the nation’s
largest payday lenders, ACE Cash
Express, will pay $10 million in
restitution and penalties for direct-
ing its employees to “create a
sense of urgency” when contact-
ing delinquent borrowers. This
abusive tactic was used to perpet-
uate the payday loan debt trap.
CFPB has ordered ACE Cash
Express to provide consumers
with $5 million in refunds and the
same amount in penalties for its
violations. The firm operates in 36
states and in the District of
Columbia with 1,500 storefronts,
5,000 associates and online loans.
“We believe that ACE’s aggres-
sive tactics were part of a culture
of coercion aimed at pressuring
payday borrowers into debt traps,”
said Cordray. “Our investigation
uncovered a graphic in ACE’s
training manual that lays out a
step-by-step loan and collection
process that can ensnare con-
sumers in a cycle of debt. When
borrowers could not pay back their
loans, ACE would subject them to
illegal debt collection threats and
harassment.”
Commenting
on
CFPB’s
actions, Mike Calhoun, president
of the Center for Responsible
Lending, said, “This enforcement
action also confirms what our
research found long ago: payday
Page 2 The Portland and Seattle Skanner July 23, 2014
R ESPONSIBLE
L ENDING
Charlene
Crowell
lenders depend on keeping vulner-
able consumers trapped in an
endless cycle of debt of 300-400
percent interest loans...It’s real,
it’s abusive and it’s time to stop.”
CRL research shows that payday
loans drain $3.4 billion a year
Last year, another large payday
lender, the Fort Worth-based Cash
America International, faced simi-
lar enforcement actions when
CFPB ordered it to pay $5 million
in fines for robo-signing court
documents submitted in debt col-
lection lawsuits. Cash America
also paid $14 million to con-
sumers through one of its more
than 900 locations throughout the
United States, Mexico and the
United Kingdom.
On the same day that the
CFPB’s enforcement action
occurred, another key payday-
related development occurred.
‘When borrowers could not pay back
their loans, ACE would subject them to
illegal debt collection threats and
harassment’
from consumers. Further, CRL has
long held that the payday industry
preys on customers who cannot
repay their loans.
Now, with CFPB releasing an
item from ACE Cash Express’
training manual, that contention is
proven to be true. The ACE graph-
ic shows how the business model
intends to create a debt cycle that
becomes increasingly difficult to
break and urges its associates to be
aggressive.
Across the country, the South
has the highest concentration of
payday loan stores and accounts
for 60 percent of total payday
lending fees. Missouri is the only
state outside of the South with a
comparable concentration of pay-
day stores.
Missouri Gov. “Jay” Nixon
vetoed a bill that purported to be
payday reform. In part, Gov.
Nixon’s veto letter states, “allow-
ing payday lenders to charge 912.5
percent for a 14-day loan is not
true reform...Supporters point to
the prohibition of loan rollovers;
but missing from the legislation is
anything to address the unfortu-
nately all-too-common situation
where someone living paycheck-
to-paycheck is offered multiple
loans by multiple lenders at the
same time or is encouraged to take
out back-to-back loans from the
same lender...This bill cannot be
called meaningful reform and does
not receive my approval.”
Speaking in support of Gov.
Nixon’s veto, Pastor Lloyd Fields
of Kansas City added, “The faith
community applauds Governor
Nixon’s moral leadership in hold-
ing lawmakers to a higher
standard on payday lending
reform. Missourians deserve noth-
ing less.”
On the following day, July 11,
the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) fined a Florida-based pay-
day loan ‘broker’ $6.2 million in
ill-gotten gains. According to
FTC, the firm falsely promised to
help consumers get payday loans.
After promising consumers to
assist them in securing a loan in as
little as an hour, consumers shared
their personal financial data. How-
ever that information was instead
used to take money from con-
sumers’ bank accounts and
without their consent.
Speaking on behalf of the FTC,
Jessica Rich, director of FTC’s
Bureau of Consumer Protection,
said, “These defendants deceived
consumers to get their sensitive
financial data and used it to take
their money. The FTC will contin-
ue putting a stop to these kinds of
illegal practices.”
Looking forward, CFPB’s Cor-
dray also sees a need to remain
watchful of payday developments.
“Debt collection tactics such as
harassment and bullying take a
profound toll on people – both
financially and emotionally”, said
Cordray. “The Consumer Bureau
bears an important responsibility
to stand up for those who are
being wronged in this process.”
Charlene Crowell is a communi-
cations manager with the Center
for Responsible Lending. She can
be
reached
at
Charlene.crowell@responsible-
lending.org.