Immigration Roundup
State governments continue to crack down on illegal immigration, with good results.
Missouri:
Gov. Matt Blunt was in Kansas City and St. Louis last week promoting his own crackdown on illegal immigration. If the feds weren’t going to do it, he was, Blunt said.The part of his plan that got the most attention, of course, was the announcement that the Highway Patrol and other state law enforcement agencies will start verifying the immigration status of people they arrest.
…
However, there was another element to the Republican governor’s plan that critics will have a hard time convincing me is a bad idea.
That’s Blunt’s two-pronged effort to deny state aid and contracts to businesses that employ illegal immigrants.
In other words, he’s getting after the big reason we have the illegal immigration problem in the first place.
Already, recipients of Missouri tax credits are required to submit proof that the people they employ are in the country legally.
What’s new is that the Missouri Department of Economic Development will now begin checking to see if those records are correct.
They’ll do that by randomly inspecting construction projects underwritten with state tax aid. And if officials learn that illegals are working on a job, the project could lose state aid.
That’s the plan, anyway. The follow-through we’ll have to keep an eye on.
The second part of the guv’s directive hadto do with contractors.
Blunt ordered an audit of all state vendors to weed out those who knowingly employ illegal immigrants.
Naturally, Blunt is being accused of playing politics in an election season. And I don’t doubt there’s some or a lot of that.
What pol doesn’t do a political cost-benefit analysis of every move he or she makes?
(That is, other than maybe Kansas City’s mayor, who hasn’t quite mastered that yet.)
However, regardless of Blunt’s motives, he’s on the right track.
Georgia:
Atlanta Highway is home to a number of what are often referred to as “tote a note” used car lots. These dealerships carry older and less expensive used vehicles and offer in-house financing.The clientele is mostly Hispanic. The signs beckon “Compre aqui paga aqui” or “buy here, pay here.”
But dealers along the road say the buying part of that equation has dropped significantly since July 1. A new state law requiring car buyers to have a valid Georgia driver’s license before a new title can be issued has sent business plummeting.
Mike Grindle, who owns Jim Waters Motor Co. on Browns Bridge Road and King Motor Sales on Atlanta Highway, admits that his business at the Atlanta Highway location is off dramatically.
“Our Hispanic business has absolutely disappeared,” Grindle said, predicting an economic impact from lost sales tax revenue.
“We report several hundred thousand dollars a month in car sales,” Grindle said. “That’s a lot of revenue.”
Grindle said prior to the new law, his Hispanic customers had a Mexican driver’s license or a fake state license.
“There are fake driver’s licenses and everybody knows it,” he said. “You can go to Virginia and get a license and a lot of them have done that.”
The auto dealer said Georgia’s crackdown has opened the doors in other states.
“Up in Tennessee they’ve got their arms wide open saying ‘Come on, we want you,’” he said. “They’re (Hispanics) moving out of state. The Hispanics’ No. 1 deal is to get a car. They don’t care if they’ve got a place to live as long as they’ve got a car.”
Aaron Katz, manager of Art’s Auto Sales on Atlanta Highway, said his business has been off by 30 to 40 percent since the first of the year.
“Business has been slow this year,” Katz said. “A lot of them (Hispanics) are going back to Mexico. We’ve had a few cars given back to us because they’re leaving to go back.”
An interesting observation that other states’ legislators might want to take note of.
— PoliPundit