Law cuts immigrants’ car sales

North Carolina's efforts to prevent illegal immigrants from getting driver's licenses are pinching another group: used-car dealers.

It's an unintended effect in a local economy where bodegas and Mexican taquerias are not the only businesses that have carved out a niche catering to Latino immigrants. On Raleigh's Capital Boulevard, a major corridor for used car lots, dealers say sales have dropped as much as 30 percent in recent months.

Part of the slump can be attributed to an economic downturn and the drying up of construction jobs that keep many Latino immigrants employed, dealers say. In recent weeks, however, M. Scott Moore and other dealers said Latino customers have been fretting about being able to register a cars with a driver's licenses set to expire that they cannot renew. Applicants now must provide a valid Social Security number or a visa to get an N.C. license, and with only a few exceptions, a current license is required to register a vehicle.

"I know they're trying to curtail the illegal immigrants being here. I see both sides," said Moore, an owner of Murphy Motor Co. just north of downtown Raleigh. "They need to live by our laws here, but at the same time, as far as customerwise, they're some of the best customers we have. They're easy to deal with."

Moore employs three Spanish-speaking salesmen and estimates that 65 percent of his business comes from Latinos. Murphy Motor sold as many as 60 cars a month last year.

"We're probably selling 20, 25 cars a month less because of the driver's license situation," he said.

Arturo Garcia, 30, has lived in the Raleigh area since moving here from Mexico at 19. Garcia visited Murphy Motor last week to check out a 1998 Ford Expedition listed at $11,761.

Garcia, who supports himself and his mother by working construction, acknowledged that he is not a legal resident. The driver's license he got with a tax identification number is set to expire in 2010, he said.

"The problem is not a lack of jobs. It's that they don't let us drive anymore," Garcia said.

On the other side of Capital Boulevard, Bruce Devincenzo estimated that car sales at his Wake Auto Sales are down 25 percent. Up the road near Wake Forest, Alberto A. Arevalo's small lot is crowded with late-model sports-utility vehicles, trucks and cars.

None of his Latino customers are shopping for cars, said Arevalo, a native Mexican. Instead, they're looking to sell him their vehicles because they're worried about keeping their registrations current after their licenses lapse.

It's not clear that anyone tracks car loan applications from area Latinos. But David Flores, president of Nuestro Banco, a Hispanic community bank based in Raleigh, said dealers have told bank employees similar stories about the law's effect.

Figures on how many illegal immigrants are driving with N.C. licenses are unavailable; until the law changed in 2006, Internal Revenue Service tax identification numbers were valid identification for applicants.

Marge Howell, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles, said the change – requiring either a valid Social Security number or a valid visa to qualify for a license – grew out of security concerns following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Not until September, when another new state law clarifying registration requirements took effect, did used car dealers notice a drop in business.

The prime sponsor of the law that took effect last year, Democratic Sen. David Hoyle of Gaston County, said the law was meant to allow certain groups of people without N.C. licenses, such as college students or active military personnel, to register vehicles in the state. The law also spelled out for the first time that people who did not fall under those exceptions must present a valid N.C. driver's license to register a car.

Hoyle said he had no specific intent to target illegal immigrants.

"But … I don't think we need to make it easier for them," Hoyle said. "If you're illegal, you're illegal."