Thread: OH-GOP upset by report of car-registration abuses

GOP upset by report of car-registration abuses
Senate leaders to probe why loophole favoring illegal aliens wasn't plugged
Thursday, September 17, 2009 3:12 AM
By Randy Ludlow

The Ohio Senate will join the state inspector general in looking into a delay in cracking down on the fraudulent flow of state-issued license plates to illegal immigrants.

The Government Oversight Committee will conduct hearings into the matter beginning as early as next week, said Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, committee chairman.

Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, requested the hearings after what he described as a "disturbing" story in The Dispatch on Sunday.

The Dispatch reported that a loophole in Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles registration procedures allowed thousands of undocumented workers to obtain license plates and often drive without insurance.

Harris and Husted said yesterday that they are concerned that state officials were on the verge of ending registration abuses but then stopped short and did not enact a policy for another year.

Outgoing Public Safety Director Henry Guzman ordered toughened regulations to cut off the supply of license plates to the immigrants but pulled the rules back on July 31, 2008, the day before they were to take effect.

Guzman declared a moratorium on enacting the changes after meeting that day with a group of Latino business owners who cater to illegal immigrants and who were worried about financial harm to their businesses.

"It begs the question, 'Why did this occur?' " Husted said. "Mr. Guzman knew it was a problem but somehow failed to correct the problem."

Present at the July 31 meeting without Guzman's knowledge, officials said, were "runners," Latinos with legal U.S. residency who charged illegal immigrants fees of more than $100 each to register cars with falsified power-of-attorney forms.

A revised policy was enacted on Aug. 24 requiring the submission of drivers' license numbers or state ID numbers to verify the identity and residency of those seeking to register vehicles with power-of-attorney forms. The old policy required only a Social Security number, which the BMV could not verify.

Public-safety officials said Guzman asked for changes to the flawed original policy to make it more effective. Officials blamed former BMV Registrar Mike Rankin for being slow to develop new regulations. Rankin, who complained in e-mails about delays in enacting the policy, has declined to comment.

Public-safety and BMV officials are "committed to working with members of the Senate" during the hearings, said spokesman Thomas Hunter. "This department has effectively closed the loophole that existed for several years prior to Director Guzman's tenure," he said.

BMV investigators reported that Franklin County was the center of a "cottage industry" in which some runners made thousands of dollars a week registering vehicles on behalf of illegal immigrants.

rludlow@dispatch.com


http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/co ... cs&sid=101

Guzman declared a moratorium on enacting the changes after meeting that day with a group of Latino business owners who cater to illegal immigrants and who were worried about financial harm to their businesses.