While the debate rages over immigration reform, U.S.-based companies are charging into the growing market to serve immigrant consumers • including undocumented workers.

Critics may see illegal immigrants as lawbreakers and threats to the U.S. economy. But some banks, health insurers, retailers and other businesses see millions of potential consumers, taxpayers and homeowners.

Figures on how much undocumented workers spend are hard, if not impossible, to come by. But researchers from the Federal Reserve to PricewaterhouseCoopers predict that the Hispanic and immigrant economy will grow rapidly as those populations soar in the coming years.

The University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth projects that Hispanics' spending power • personal income after taxes • will rise from $490 billion in 2000 to $1 trillion in 2010.

"Every Census decade has shown phenomenal growth in the Hispanic consumer market," says Ernest Bromley of Bromley Communications, an advertising firm in San Antonio. "For (corporate) clients, it's no longer a question of whether there's a market or not. The question now is: How much should we spend to make as much as we can possibly make?"

Why is the market getting more attention now?

Undocumented immigrants • 10 million to 20 million in the USA, depending on estimates • blended long ago into the mainstream Hispanic market, which corporations are courting furiously.

Besides, Bromley and others point out, businesses aren't law enforcement agencies, and it's not illegal to sell products to undocumented immigrants.

Moreover, at least 200 U.S. financial firms and other businesses accept an identification card called matricula consular, which is issued to Mexican nationals by Mexican consulates. More than 4 million immigrants carry the cards, according to the Mexican government and the Congressional Research Service.

Lastly, the Internal Revenue Service, frowning at lost tax revenue to the underground cash economy, is encouraging undocumented workers to enter the U.S. financial system. The IRS issues individual taxpayer identification numbers (ITINs) to undocumented workers and others without Social Security numbers.

Companies charging into the immigrant market include:

•The Hispanic retailer. La Curacao, a fast-growing department store chain, boasts six "big box" stores in Southern California that sell furniture, household appliances, toys, computers and other goods. The company's money-transfer and telephone services, plus an Internet-access service called Pasito.com, also are growing in popularity.

The stores are jammed with shoppers on weekends, just like Costco outlets. Stores feature Mayan architectural facades, bright festival colors and musical and kids' entertainment.

La Curacao's main target audience: first- and second-generation Hispanics "who feel very comfortable in our environment," says Mauricio Fux, senior vice president for corporate development. Many are undocumented workers with matricula consular cards who don't show up in mainstream credit or banking records, he says.

Fux says La Curacao's 1 million credit card holders are loyal customers who "buy products of good quality that are going to last." Shoppers now, for instance, are snapping up big-screen television sets to watch the World Cup soccer championship next month.

La Curacao executives, who project annual double-digit sales growth in the coming years, hope to open 20 more outlets through 2010 in the Southwest.

"We've become a destination for our customers," Fux says.

•The banking giant. Bank of America is focusing heavily on the immigrant market, with 48% of U.S Hispanic households using at least one Bank of America financial product, from checking accounts to mortgages, says company spokeswoman Diane Wagner.

Nearly half of Bank of America's new hires last year were bilingual Spanish speakers. Bank literature and signs in many branches are printed in Spanish. And the company makes strong showings at Hispanic community events such as Fiesta Broadway, a Cinco de Mayo celebration in Los Angeles that draws a half-million Latinos.

Since 2002, the bank has accepted the matricula consular cards • plus other forms of identification such as driver's licenses • as valid identification to open bank accounts.

Bank of America also puts on "financial literacy" seminars at Mexican consulate offices to educate immigrants about banking services, including SafeSend, a remittance service that's free if customers also open a checking account.

"We want to establish a good and solid financial relationship with the Hispanic population," Wagner says. "We know they want to save and put their money in a safe place."

•The health insurer. Blue Cross, owned by WellPoint, estimates that 6.4 million people in California are uninsured, nearly 60% of them Hispanic.

Health care benefits are complex even for U.S. citizens, so Blue Cross puts on more than 300 educational programs for California's Spanish-speaking community, says Leonor McCall-Rodriguez, vice president for emerging markets.

When Blue Cross heard from the Guatemalan consulate's office that a large number of Guatemalan immigrants in California speak an obscure Mayan dialect, the company produced a video for those potential customers.

Blue Cross will enroll undocumented workers if they have a matricula consular card and proof of the same residency for at least three months. Customers are coded confidentially by numbers.

"Bringing them into the pool of insured certainly benefits the whole community and brings down the cost of health care," McCall-Rodriguez says.

Rob Paral, a demographics researcher in Chicago, says that, contrary to stereotypes, undocumented immigrants make up "an untapped market of economic actors" who are stable, family-oriented consumers.

In a study for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals, Paral estimates that 231,000 undocumented immigrant households can afford to buy homes • a $44 billion economic boon if they had mortgages.

Advertising executive Bromley, speaking of the dollar impact of immigrants on all sectors, says: "It's a very dynamic market that's not going away."

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By Edward Iwata, USA TODAY

Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.