Best Buy Aids and Abets Illegal Aliens

Just when you thought Best Buy was overpriced, the company gives you another reason to avoid doing business with them.

Best Buy is now accepting the matricula consular, an unverifiable piece of "identification" issued by the Mexican government that is needed only by illegal aliens. Any Hispanic-looking person can roll up to a Mexican consulate, show the foreign government employees a photocopied Mexican birth certificate (or something that passes as one) along with a random utility bill, and the consulate cranks out a little ID. Again, no one needs it other than illegal aliens. It's a breeder document, meaning that it is a key to living freely -- albeit illegally -- in the United States. Read all about the card's worthlessness and dangerousness, here and here.

Obviously, if one wants to open a credit card at Best Buy -- or any department store -- one needs to have a drivers license, a verifiable social security number, and perhaps some other form of identification. But illegal aliens don't have a social security number, and their "credit worthiness" simply isn't verifiable under a standard credit check.

But Best Buy still wants illegal aliens to make purchases they cannot afford. So, the electronics store is accepting the cards as valid identification at 30 of their stores is are planning on expanding the program. An e-mail from their office is posted in full, below.

Here's a major problem: Illegal aliens are routinely deported. It is undeniable that thousands of illegal aliens with an open Best Buy credit card -- and perhaps thousands of unpaid dollars on the card -- will be shipped back to Mexico over the next few years. There is NO WAY for Best Buy to track down the individual, and the costs will never be recouped.

The result: YOU THE CONSUMER will have these losses passed on to you in the form of higher prices. That's how basic business practices work.

Read the e-mail exchanges below, and send Best Buy your own thoughts.

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J.D.,

Best Buy is currently running a test in 30 select stores in which the Marticula Consular is being accepted as a valid form of ID for processing Best Buy Credit Card and Reward Zone Mastercard applications. The Matricula Consular is an official document of the Mexican Government for the identification and registration of Mexican Nationals abroad. The Matricula does not mention the holder's "immigration status" in the U.S. but is used for purposes of verifying his or her identity, place of residence, and place of birth.

Currently more than 800 U.S. police departments and 70 banks accept the Matricula as a form of identification. Please do not hesitate to contact us with additional questions or concerns.

Best Wishes from Best Buy,

Dayjah and the Consumer Relations Team

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Dayjah,

Thank you for the response. Please be aware that matriculas are needed ONLY BY ILLEGAL ALIENS. Legal immigrants have no use for the cards. And since illegal aliens are regularly deported, they'll have a new address, will be untraceable, and all of the money Best Buy loses in loans WILL BE PASSED ON TO ME, the consumer.

Banks that have accepted them are losing millions; just look at Wachovia and Bank of America.

MY PROMISE: I will not purchase anything from Best Buy until you end this disgusting practice. If it becomes permanent, I will never shop at another Best Buy. I closed my Wachovia account two years ago and will never go back.

Cheers,

J.D.