Immigration issues continue to be a major political football, and the work of Jean Braucher, Bob Lawless, and Dov Cohen on race in bankruptcy garnered front-page NY Times attention this year. This makes the publication of Chrystin Ondersma's paper titled Undocumented Debtors particularly timely. The paper is the first-ever look (to my knowledge) at whether and how undocumented people file bankruptcy. The key finding is that while it seems legal–and indeed arguably explicitly contemplated by the bankruptcy system–that undocumented people may file, the rate of filings is very low–on the order of less than one percent of the rate of debtors in the general population. Ondersma also provides a good overview of the credit systems available
to undocumented people, ranging from those offered by large national
entities, such as ITIN mortgages, to informal mechanisms such as tandas.

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