Georgia May Have This Illegal Immigration Thing Figured Out

There's a story in the LA Times today about the impact that Georgia's new immigration enforcement law is having on the illegal immigrant population in that state. It might actually be causing them to leave, and people who have been catering to the illegal immigrant home buying market are not happy:

Two months ago, all Alina Arguello had to do to find Latino home buyers was put up a sign and answer her phone.

But ever since Georgia passed one of the most stringent and far-reaching immigration laws in the nation, the number of Latino buyers who call the Re/Max agent's home office in suburban Atlanta has dwindled from about 10 to two a day.

"We're seeing a drastic drop," she said. "There's just a tremendous amount of people who want homes, but are not calling." Many real estate agents and mortgage providers who cater to Spanish-speaking immigrants across Georgia say that the flourishing Latino home buying market has faltered since April, when Gov. Sonny Perdue signed the Georgia Security and Immigration Compliance Act.

Almost immediately, Latino home buyers pulled out of contracts. Some who had already bought, put their homes on the market. And many prospective buyers stopped searching for homes.

What is this terrible new law that is causing consternation for both Hispanic illegals as well as legal residents?

Although Georgia's new legislation does not prohibit illegal immigrants from owning property, many wonder whether they will want to live in Georgia when it begins to come into effect in July 2007.

The law will require companies with state contracts to verify employees' immigration status, penalize employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, curtail many government benefits to illegal immigrants and require that jailers check the immigration status of anyone who is charged with a felony or driving under the influence.

Sounds a little like Prop. 187 in California a few years ago which got bounced by the courts. So what are these draconian measures doing to the local housing market?

"This new law is definitely putting some brakes on Latino home buying," said Carlos Mata, vice president of HomeBanc en Español, a bilingual bank based in Atlanta, who said that based on the last two months, he doubted whether his company would reach its financial goal by the end of the year.

"I call it the public enemy No. 1 of the Hispanic housing market in Atlanta. Nothing — not the economy or the interest rates — threaten it so much." On April 17, when Perdue signed the legislation, many real estate agents here took calls from despondent clients.

Diego Castaneda, a real estate agent and loan officer in Norcross, Ga., had two clients — illegal immigrants from Mexico — who were a week away from closing on homes in Atlanta's northern suburbs when they pulled out of their contracts.

Losing $1,000 in earnest money, they calculated, was preferable to taking on a mortgage when they didn't know how the new law would be implemented.

"They were just scared," said Castaneda, who has struggled to find new clients. Last week, he called the classified section of Mundo Hispanico, a local Hispanic newspaper, to downgrade his $800-a-month advertisement: In the last two months, he said, it had not generated any calls.

State Sen. Chip Rogers, a Republican who represents some of Atlanta's northern suburbs and who sponsored the legislation, said he was "very satisfied" that the law seemed to be prompting some illegal immigrants to consider leaving Georgia.

"If someone is here illegally," he said, "buying a house would probably not be a wise investment." But not all of the Latino immigrants who are uncertain about investing in Georgia property are illegal.

I have a hard time feeling sorry for a real estate agent or a loan officer who is knowingly catering to illegal aliens. If their business suffers as a result of the new law, that's too bad.

What is really silly about this is that Hispanics who are legal residents are also pulling out of deals. The activists who have given us the huge marches and other inflamatory rhetoric have managed to convince millions of legal immigrants that America is out to get them too. You have to be an idiot to believe that, but there are lots of idiots out there.

This could create a short term shock in the real estate market in Georgia, but the real question is whether the law will attract more people to the state than it repels?