Posted on 07/15/2007 5:06:33 PM PDT by Turbopilot
Jose Genao sells used cars for a living, but lately he's had to turn away customers from his Smyrna dealership.
Genao used to sell about 15 vehicles a week, mostly Ford F-150 or Silverado pickups to a Mexican clientele. Now he sells only two or three.
Half a dozen customers have returned cars because they can't register them.
"They bring the key and tell me, 'Jose, I'm leaving,' " Genao said.
Genao is feeling the fallout from a new state law, effective July 1, that requires a valid Georgia driver's license or ID card to register a car in Georgia.
The law is cutting deep into traffic for many auto dealers and tag and title services catering to the state's growing immigrant community. Illegal immigrants can't get driver's licenses because to do so, they must prove they're in the country legally.
The law also has the potential to cut into sales taxes and county ad valorem tax revenues, though metro area counties say it's too early to measure that effect.
The bill's sponsor, Sen. Chip Rogers (R-Woodstock) said he did not target immigrants.
"Yes, this will impact people who are here illegally, but my biggest focus is public safety," he said.
"If [car dealers and tag services] have built their business on people who are here illegally, I'm sorry, but at some point they had to realize that was not going to continue," Rogers said.
The license plate law closes a window that gave motorists 30 days to get Georgia driver's licenses after moving to the state. In the interim, a driver could register a car with an out-of-state or international license.
Also effective July 1 was a separate, 2006 law requiring increased verification of legal status in Georgia for a variety of other purposes, including to work in some jobs or qualify for welfare.
While no one knows how many illegal immigrants are in Georgia, a government estimate put the number around 470,000. Nationally, most illegal immigrants are from Mexico, followed by El Salvador, Guatemala, India and China, according to a 2005 Department of Homeland Security report.
Genao, 34, has a green card and has lived in the United States eight years. If business doesn't pick up, he might return to his native Dominican Republic to tend to a car dealership there.
"If they don't do something, a lot of businesses are going to close," he said.
Tony Brooks, an insurance agent who caters to the Hispanic community in Marietta, said business for his tag and title service has dropped off about 80 percent since the law went into effect.
"It's definitely slowing things down, that's for sure," Brooks said.
He's had to turn away 30 to 40 people wanting tags in the last two weeks because they don't have Georgia driver's licenses.
His main business is auto insurance, which hasn't suffered, but he's worried immigrant customers won't buy insurance either if they can't register their cars.
Cobb County's tag offices have seen a "significant decrease" in the volume of applications submitted by tag and title services in the last two weeks, said Stewart Manley, manager of Cobb County's tag offices.
The county has also turned away about 40 people per day, Manley said, out of an average 1,900 customers served daily. Some are people who have moved from other states and don't have Georgia driver's licenses yet, Manley said. "They're complaining mildly," he said.
Tax collectors in Cobb, Gwinnett and DeKalb said it is too early to tell how the new license plate law would affect tax collection.
"You really won't see the effect economically for six months," said Brent Bennett, director of vehicle registrations for DeKalb County.
Loopholes exist even with the new law.
An illegal immigrant can still mail in a tag renewal or go online and avoid the need to show a driver's license.
That's what Raul Hernandez plans to do. He is an illegal immigrant from Mexico who came here legally but overstayed his visa and so has a Georgia driver's license. He doesn't have to worry about the tag problem, but his friends do.
"People have asked me to get tags for them in my name. Right now I said 'No, it's not worth the risk. If they get tickets, they'll be sent to me,' " he said in Spanish.
"Right now people are scared, but it will settle down and go back to normal," Hernandez predicted.
Isaias Zavala, 33, an illegal immigrant from Mexico who works construction, said he has no license but his wife does, so he registers their car through her. Still, he worries because he has to drive to work.
"This all seems very bad to me," he said in Spanish of the new law.
Perimeter Insurance Agency used to process 25 tags per week in one Cobb County location. Since July 1, they've done only three renewals, said Jose Mendez, part owner of the business.
His co-owner, Rick Craddock, said he appreciates his immigrant customers.
"We love these people," Craddock said.
But he acknowledges there is a problem with illegal immigration. "We have to secure the border and slow the influx," he said. "The solution is not to kick out all the people who are already here."
It’s time we fought back against this invasion. States need to act, because the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to preserve and protect these United States.
He's had to turn away 30 to 40 people wanting tags in the last two weeks because they don't have Georgia driver's licenses.Hmmm, he loses 30 to 40 people for tags over a two-week period but his insurance business hasn't suffered. That's a pretty good indication to me that the illegals weren't buying auto insurance anyway.His main business is auto insurance, which hasn't suffered, but he's worried immigrant customers won't buy insurance either if they can't register their cars.
The law is cutting deep into traffic for many auto dealers and tag and title services catering to the state's growing [illegal] immigrant community.
There.
I fixed it for them.
Millions of legal immigrants have managed to register cars over the last 20 years, no problem.
So what is this article really about? The ol' "it's bad for business" whine? Whatever happened to "it's for the children?"
Yes, it is.
If all the illegals were deported, the US peek-up market would collapse.
Boo-hoo! It’s so hard when you are forced to obey the law.
> The license plate law closes a window that gave motorists
> 30 days to get Georgia driver’s licenses after moving
> to the state ...
Ummm, is there an exception for non-resident property
owners who do not have or need a GA license, and have
a vehicle principally garaged in GA?
If not, there’s likely a Catch 22 here (plus some lost
revenue from otherwise perfectly legit citizens).
I for one expect to pay market prices for products which are produced by LEGAL immigrants.
I was thinking the same thing. All they need to do now is make it impossible for illegals to get welfare or receive health benefits, and they will be in a stampede to get out!
I live in the largest agricultural county in Georgia: Colquitt.
We have a very large hispanic population (You should try to get in WalMart the first Sunday of the month) and lots of Buy Here/Leave Here auto places.
Jose and 9 of his buddies pool their cash and buy a car, usually a van. They get insurance long enough to register it, and poof.
Only Jose has a license, but everyone else drives it. Normally they are decent on the road, but once they have the chance to drink a few, they are maniacs and idiots.
Funny, the farmers would like nothing more than to see them gone, but our county would suffer dearly with the loss of their work...and the money they spend at WalMart.
High Five Georgia!!!!!!!!!
^5!!!!!
You got it—even if they do buy insurance in the first place, they let it lapse after the first payment-—try NJ where it is a known fact most, if not all, of the Mexies have NO auto insurance and the true citizens are stuck with repairs and then have to go after the State fund for a partial repayment (uninsured motorists)—of course those with insurance have their rates ‘jacked up’ to make up for this fund—get the illegals the hell out of my country!
I was about to post the same thing. They’re getting registration so they can get the tabs on their cars but are not paying for insurance or only for bare minimum plans.
Perhaps there is a market to set up front companies to lease cars to illegals.
...he’s worried immigrant customers won’t buy insurance either if they can’t register their cars.
Isn’t one of the problems with illegals is that they don’t have automobile insurance?
#7.
that’s the liberal media
pulling your emotions.
They shouldn’t have been relying on illegals.
They should be paying a prevailing U.S. wage or better yet, mechanizing.
I feel your pain, Illegal. When I see you and your "people" in my country, it all seems very bad.
The State of Georgia will soon have the ACLU on their case. The ACLU is claim this is profiling and is a prejudice law against immigrants. The MSM won’t mention the part of illegal immigrants, just immigrants. I agree with the post that if every state adopted this law, it would do two things. 1) Either send the illegals back where they belong or 2) the car theft rate with dramatically increase. I wonder if Georgia’s GTO rate has increased rate or if their uninsured auto premiums have been reduced??
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