Should financial institutions provide Home Mortgages to residents who don’t have a Social Security Number yet?

It's estimated that there are as many as 7 million to 8 million resident aliens in the United States who do not have Social Security cards, but are in some phase of the immigration process leading to citizenship. That process can take years - often more than eight years - and "meanwhile these individuals are working here, earning incomes, paying taxes, contributing to the economy."

New legislation on Capitol Hill seeks to curb an increasingly popular mortgage concept: providing home loans to applicants using their individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN), in lieu of a Social Security number. The bill introduced in Congress would prohibit financial institutions from providing home mortgages to anyone who lacks a Social Security number.