Thread: GA: Driver's license law hits auto dealers

Driver's license law hits auto dealers

Unable to register, illegal immigrants return vehicles

By MARY LOU PICKEL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/16/07
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."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/ ... _0716.html

A step in the right direction but we need to close the loopholes and add teeth to the law.

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.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out! I have absolutely no sympathy for someone who built their business around illegal immigrants.

The very fact that the new law is affecting so many people there proves just how out of hand illegal immigration is. We can imagine the numbers we will see if we don't secure the southern border. How can an illegal afford a place to stay and a new truck on just above minimum wage pay? Easy, if 10 people share rent he only has to pay $100 a month. The rest can be used to eat, send money back home and of course, pay for a new truck. Soon those happy English only speaking car salesmen lose their jobs because the boss soon needs a guy who speaks Spanish. Of course the insurance guy will soon lose his clients to a Spanish insurance agent. This is exactly how it works until pretty soon "No Spanish, no business" becomes the norm...If you ain't mad yet, you ain't paying attention!"

Gee I loved that post...It is a great start...and it does prove how bad the illegal alien problem is.....

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.

It is human nature to complain when a 'right' is taken away. In this instance the 'right' never existed but because laws were ignored, or circumvented, a defacto right was created. This is one of many perceived privileges that has sent the wrong message to illegal immigrants; that their illegal entry into the country would be tolerated.
I believe that if laws are enforced they will start to return to their home country, and that country will be the better for it. Perhaps, they will return with experience and skills learned in the U.S. that will help them change their motherland.