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."
LOL! How dare a state tell people they must have a valid license to register a car!!!!
Sounds really good to me in English.
Hie your arse back to whatever third-world cesspool you came from if you don't like our laws.
When I insured my truck in Florida, it was double what I paid in the Peoples Republica de Massachusetts. Same coverage. I asked the agent why and she said, “No habla Englase. Comprendo?” So many unlicensed, fake licensed, name changing illegals just drive, run away from accidents. No one knows who the are. Talk about flying below the radar, they are invisible, untouchable.
I am literally weeping that Georgia has made it almost impossible for car dealers to sell cars to illegal aliens. /sarc
This is friggin wonderful. This should be adopted by ALL states.
“Yes, and another article in the Augusta Chronicle was about farmers having to struggle and face crops rotting in their fields because Mexican workers are choosing to leave like y’all want.”
Guess they’ll have to pay higher wages then.
Another reason that all 50 states should start doing this. Let’s run the ACLU ragged and drain their money reserves. Force them to defend illegal aliens all over. we need to go on the offensive and start wearing them down.
"If they don't do something, a lot of businesses are going to close," he said.
Well old Genao, you scum sucker, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
Man is more about interested in stealing a dollar than a dunk illegal killing somebody.
.
Isn’t it amazing that reporters can find illegals whenever they want to write a story, but INS has such great difficulty locating them?
Here is an article about farmers using inmates.http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_6344387
It’s good to see the media publish articles with positive content.
Yes, just don't know how they will be able to pick all those "Peanuts".
LOL
Well If that is the case then perhaps those farmers should hire some of the high school kids who cannot get a job a Micky D's because all the illegals have them. Or better yet get Mikey D's to fire the illegals and send them to the fields where they belong. Now that would be a win win situation Americans who can speak English serving food at Mcdonalds, now who could imagine that
For years and years in Ga. a dealer sold a used car, he issued a thirty day tag with the purchase, which gave the buyer thirty days to take his papers to DMV and get it registered. A lot of buyers never ever registered their cars, they just drove them around with the paper tag. And they would find someone like this dealer who would sell them a new paper tag under the table, when the old one ran out. They did the same thing with a binder insurance card.
Let’s run the ACLU ragged and drain their money reserves.
I believe I read where the ACLU gets their money from the taxpayers??
It’s time we fought back against this invasion.
Agreed
States need to act, because the federal government has abdicated its responsibility to preserve and protect these United States.
The Federal Government has abdicated the highest priority responsibility the Federal Government was created to do.
I don't buy that garbage for one minute. Hell some clown making 50,000 a year might need to mow his own yard, my heart really bleed for him. Not!
I know a few millionaires that mow their own yards.
The 50 laboratories of democracy should be allowed to address the problem of illegal immigration separately. Georgia should be permitted to adopt policies that will drive the illegals out. If they benefit as a result, other states will follow suit.
Right now, people are making a lot of hand-waving arguments about how illegal immigrants are necessary for our economy to function. Let Georgia find out.
The tomatoes at my local PathMark cost me a buck each. If they can't afford to pay somebody to pick tomatoes at a buck each, the farmers are seriously inefficient.
This will cut into their margins. Boo-FReepin'-hoo.
When a new resident comes into Texas, they have to register their car BEFORE they can get a Texas driver’s license. I kind of like the way Georgia does it though. However, they do not have to surrender their out of state title for a Texas title if they choose not to.
They have to show proof of insurance though for registering a car AND obtaining a driver’s license.
I agree. This guy is pissed off because he is making money off of a bunch of illegals who will more than likely get behind the wheel of an uninsured vehicle and kill someone screw him I can not stand a car dealer. They are just as back as realtors.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.