A puzzling bank protest

On Friday, members of the Utah Minuteman Project are planning to picket two Holladay bank branches that accept, as forms of identification, the Mexican matricula consular card and the new Utah driving privilege card. The forms of identification are used to open bank accounts and conduct other bank business. The Minutemen claim that Zions and Wells Fargo banks are violating federal law by encouraging illegal immigration.

While Minutemen members are well within their rights to protest, it is doubtful that this form of protest will gain much traction. The banks maintain they have done nothing wrong: The law allows them to accept the two forms of identification to open the account. End of story.

Each of these banks is a private enterprise, which competes with other financial institutions and financial services businesses that will move money across the globe for a fee. Moreover, it is highly doubtful that these banks would do anything to intentionally run afoul of the law.

The reason these banks permit the use of the matricula and the new state driving privilege card is that they are permitted to do so. They do business with illegal immigrants and others who lack traditional forms of identification because they recognize that there is pent-up demand for their services. People who have not had access to financial institutions have balked at the fees they are forced to pay to check-cashing companies and services that wire money home. Banks provide an alternative in the marketplace. It is a textbook example of free enterprise. What could be more American than that?

The planned Minutemen protests serve one purpose, however. They illustrate the chasm that exists between a marketplace that recognizes a need for goods and services and state and federal governments that apparently do not have the political will or a firm enough grasp on immigration issues to develop meaningful policies. Everyone involved in the immigration debate should call on the states and the federal government to make immigration reform a higher priority.