Posted on 12/26/2007 8:20:13 AM PST by AuntB
Anxiety is rising among local undocumented immigrants who fear they could lose their cars and mobile homes.
Some fears may be unfounded.
It comes as Indiana's Bureau of Motor Vehicles checks its driver's license and state ID card records with a Social Security database.
In November, the bureau sent letters to 206,000 residents whose records didn't match -- a mix of races and situations that included native-born citizens and undocumented immigrants.
If the mismatches aren't resolved by Jan. 31, licenses and ID cards will be revoked.
And since Nov. 7, the BMV has been checking Social Security records before issuing any new driver's licenses, ID cards, permits or titles to cars and mobile homes. That enforces a rule that has been on Indiana's books since 2001.
But the existing titles to cars and mobile homes won't be affected, BMV spokesman Dennis Rosebrough said.
Then again, advocates ask, how do you drive without a license?
The rumors seem especially strong in the Goshen area, where many immigrants live in mobile homes.
"Every single customer that walks in here talks about it," says Sergio Guajardo, sales manager for the Mexicar used-car lots in Goshen and Ligonier.
The Goshen lot has gone two months without selling a single car to its mostly Latino customers. So Mexicar may decide to close the lot in a couple of months, even though the lot opened six years ago and had decent sales until now, Guajardo says.
Some folks return cars they'd bought there, thinking they won't be able to hold onto them, and he adds, "I've been trying to tell people they should try to wait."
Zulma Prieto, editor of the local Spanish language newspaper, El Puente, says people have been acting on incomplete information. She, too, has been looking for clarification as she raises awareness of the possible risks on the radio, in her paper and in a meeting on the issue last week in Goshen.
In South Bend, La Casa de Amistad Director Rebecca Ruvalcaba has spoken with parents who are ridden with anxiety, asking, "What am I going to do? My children are here and are born here."
"I'm encouraging people to remain calm, cool and collected," says the Rev. Christopher Cox, pastor of St. Adalbert Parish in South Bend, which has been trying to document what's happening with the BMV letters.
The fears seem to be compounded by other efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, from workplace raids to new federal policies. Indiana is the 48th state to check its motor vehicle records with a Social Security database.
Real estate agent Alex Lino, who works in Elkhart County, says three people asked him the week before last to put their houses on the market because they feared they would somehow lose the houses. One possible reason, he says, is that the undocumented homeowner could lose his or her driver's license. Without transportation, they rationalize, the owner can't work and pay bills.
Lino says he cautions them to take it easy.
You don't need a valid Social Security number to sign a mortgage. In its place, many lenders accept the federal Individual Taxpayer Identification Number, or ITIN, which enables people to pay taxes when they aren't eligible for a Social Security number.
Rocio Arevalo-Espinosa, who arranges home loans for clients at the nonprofit LaCasa in Goshen, says she has heard of people whose loans were in jeopardy when the bank found the owners used fake Social Security numbers. She also knows of banks that have tried to rework the loan under the client's ITIN instead.
These days, she says, banks want to avoid the foreclosures that have overwhelmed the market.
Some people worry about being deported.
Ruvalcaba said La Casa de Amistad has received a few extra calls from people to draft a letter in case they have to leave the country suddenly. The letter would give power of attorney to a designated friend or family member, who would make decisions about the other person's accounts, vehicles and properties.
At Heart and Hands in Plymouth, Director Rebecca Griffy says she's had more requests to write letters asking that a friend or family member be given guardianship of the person's children if he or she left the country suddenly.
Rafael Ramirez, an Indianapolis attorney who represents mostly Latino clients across the state, says he is researching two ways to gain legal relief for the people affected by the BMV's rules. He says he is looking into either a possible class-action lawsuit or a legal maneuver so people can keep their cars and mobile homes.
He argues that undocumented immigrants have gained local rights because they've bought so many things here -- things that cannot be taken away.
Staff writer Joseph Dits: jdits@sbtinfo.com
ALSO:
FAIR Releasing Major Study on Illegal Immigration Costs in Iowa
Previous State and Private Studies Over-Estimated Tax Receipts and Under-Estimated Costs
DES MOINES, Iowa, Dec. 26 /PRNewswire/ — All across Iowa, as ordinary citizens meet face-to-face with the people who are vying for the nation’s highest political office, the issue of illegal immigration is raised again and again. Polls indicate that illegal immigration is one of the key concerns on the minds of citizens, and that there is overwhelming public support for sensible enforcement of immigration laws.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) will introduce its timely cost study to the Iowa media at a news conference in Des Moines, in conjunction with the Iowa 2007 Talk Radio Row — a two day event at which 22 of the nation’s leading talk radio hosts will be broadcasting continuously from Des Moines and focusing on immigration.
What: Release of The Costs of Illegal Immigration to Iowans, a new
report detailing the growing burdens associated with illegal
immigration in Iowa.
When: Thursday December 27, 2007 at 11:30 AM CST.
Where: Des Moines Marriott Downtown, 700 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA.
Second Floor/Salon F.
Who: Julie Kirchner, Executive Director of FAIR (and an Iowa native)
Jack Martin, Special Projects Director of FAIR, an author of the
study
Iowa Congressman Steve King (R-IA)
Jan Mickelson, Talk Host WHO-AM Des Moines, IA
Contact: Ira Mehlman at 213-700-0407 or Bob Dane at 703-850-2435.
Website: http://www.fairus.org/
http://sev.prnewswire.com/entertainment/20071226/AQW01826122007-1.html
.you can have a job and be on welfare...with muti names
a super citizen
I’ve no sympathy for some one who came here by breaking our laws.
GO HOME to from where you came.
Come back legally and I’ll care about you and your problems.
Now get out/
a super citizen A super citizen and a Super Voter...
AMEN Brother!!!
Maybe we should treat illegal immigrants like drug users.
If you lose your ass in the process, you deserve it.
Gee whiz, that’s soooo sad. Lots of native American born people of all races are scared to go into certain parts of their own city for fearing of losing their wallets, purses, bodily integrity, or even lives to these criminal invaders. Some have had to flee their own neighborhoods or have had to quit jobs because of threats made from illegal aliens. How my heart bleeds to hear of the plight of illegals !
shhhhh!
Don’t tell the news media or the worminator.
actually,they know. But live in fear too
They should have done this all over the nation from the get-go.
Or {American citizen} drunk drivers.
That does not make her a resident or citizen!
Undocumented homeowner???? With a driver license? WTF? Can we get any more pukey PC? This really yanks my chain.
When I bought my home in KY last year I had to sign 10 pages of documents swearing my legality and provide all kinds of proof that I am legit American. How in hell do these people get mortgages?? There absolutely has to be serious shenanigans by these institutions. We have people in the lending & real estate industries that ought to be in jail.
..your taking away OUR laws and taxes pinhead, no one ever mentions what citizens lose, what we pay,....and there is no such thing as "local rights"..oh by the way Raffie....dial #2 for ENGLISH
“That enforces a rule that has been on Indiana’s books since 2001.”
“The Goshen lot has gone two months without selling a single car to its mostly Latino customers. So Mexicar may decide to close the lot in a couple of months, even though the lot opened six years ago and had decent sales until now, Guajardo says.”
2 + 2 = 4? Still?
But they break into the house and start cleaning it, washing the dishes, tend the gardens, doing odd jobs and fixing up the place - we should hold them in higher regards than the native born meth-head and the six-child welfare queen just because they were “born here.”
If we got rid of all the illegal immigrants, we’d be begging them to come back in less than a month.
Total BS.
Deep, fresh, stinking BS.
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