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When California Highway Patrol officers signaled Luis to pull over, the 31-year-old drywall laborer with no driver's license was all too familiar with what would happen next. He was fingerprinted, cited and left standing at the CHP checkpoint on East Cotati Avenue two blocks from his home. A tow truck pulled up to his brother's Chevy Cavalier and hauled it to a Santa Rosa impound lot. For Luis, this was the fifth car he's lost since he crossed the border illegally from Mexico 10 years ago. Similar scenes play out nearly every day in Sonoma County and throughout the state: an illegal immigrant who is prohibited by state law from getting a driver's license is pulled over for a broken tail light, an illegal turn, a lead foot. What follows is a cycle that is a way of life in the secretive world of undocumented residents who have easy access to vehicles, but no access to gaining a license to drive. The car is impounded for 30 days, bringing fees that often exceed its value. Now abandoned, it goes back on the market, often to be purchased by another illegal immigrant who returns to the road with the cheap vehicle, no license and often no insurance. It is a system that makes financial winners of tow truck operators and used car lots, but takes a toll on law enforcement, puts legal drivers at risk from uninsured motorists and is ineffective at solving the problem of illegal drivers. It is a microcosm of the national debate now before Congress over whether to penalize or recognize illegal immigrants and illustrates California's contradictory struggle with illegal immigration: The state has satisfied political sentiment by denying driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, but has put few roadblocks in place to keep them from getting cars essential for the low-wage jobs that help fuel the state's economy. ``It's such a silly situation; we turn a blind eye from an economic standpoint,'' said Ray Hill, a Santa Rosa Junior College criminal justice instructor. ``These folks are a viable part of our economy, except when the police pull them over. Then they're subject to the full weight of the law.'' Police say they can do little more than deal with the issue one car and one driver at a time, often sorting through false names and phony IDs. From January 2003 to June 2005, the Santa Rosa Police Department impounded 2,064 vehicles for violation of California Vehicle Code 12500(a) -- driving without a license. Of those, 88 percent, or 1,826 vehicles, were taken from Latinos. Similar percentages are seen in Petaluma and Rohnert Park. Officers ask about a driver's license but not about immigration status, issuing a citation that often is treated as little more than a traffic ticket in court. Meanwhile, the car mill returns cars and drivers to the road just as quickly as they're pulled off. The seizure Luis was back on the road the day after losing the vehicle at the CHP checkpoint set up to catch drunken drivers, but which more often snares drivers with no license. As a drywall worker, he needed to drive to his job at an East Bay-area construction site so he hurried to get his own car repaired. ``What can I say? We have to find ways to drive,'' said Luis in Spanish. ``I wish people would understand that most of us don't come to this country to hurt it. We come to work.'' Luis agreed to tell his story on condition that he not be named, fearing he and members of his family could lose their jobs or even be deported if identified. He is one of more than a dozen illegal immigrants who were interviewed for this story, along with dozens of law enforcement officers, tow operators, impound lot owners, insurance agents and car salesmen. His struggles to keep a car are a common but largely hidden immigrant experience. And the costs are substantial. He now has to pay about $2,000 to recover the Cavalier, a car that belonged to his brother but was registered to his brother-in-law. The total includes a towing fee, a daily storage fee and a police release fee, due when the 30-day impound is completed next week. If the total fee is not paid, the car is sold by the towing yard and the charge is sent to collections. ``If I don't pay it, it will hurt my brother-in-law's credit,'' said Luis. ``Right now I don't have the money to get the car out. I'm going to have to borrow from friends and family.'' California stripped undocumented immigrants of their driving privileges in 1993 when it adopted a law that requires residents to provide a Social Security number and proof of legal residency to obtain a driver's license. Two years later, the state adopted a policy, modeled after a grant-funded pilot program in Santa Rosa, that requires police to impound a car for 30 days if the driver is unlicensed or driving on a suspended or revoked license. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger rejected yet another legislative attempt to restore driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. Despite those moves, the registration process continues to provide little oversight and fewer penalties. A simple form allows people selling cars to transfer ownership to a buyer, and California motor vehicle laws allow undocumented immigrants to transfer ownership of a vehicle in their names without proof of insurance. A driver's license is not needed when the transfer first occurs. The process is fueled by a huge supply of cheap cars, some of them unknowingly provided by people making a tax-deductible contribution to charity. A car for everyone A small fleet of donated cars, some dented and rusty, sits on a muddy slope near the Salvation Army's adult drug rehab center on Lytton Springs Road. Their prices are indicated on a white printed sheet placed on dashboards. For a few hundred dollars you can get a car here with no questions asked. ``All we require is cash,'' said Conde Mathias, the man in charge of the Salvation Army's used car sales. ``State law prohibits me from asking for a driver's license.'' He said the charity sells about two or three cars a day, each averaging about $1,000. But there's no way of knowing how many end up in the hands of undocumented immigrants, he said. These cars come from people who donate their cars to charity and hope to provide for others. But nobody advertises that many of the cars end up in the hands of undocumented immigrants. ``That doesn't make me happy at all,'' said Jeanne Overcashier, who with her husband donated a 1989 Honda Accord to the Salvation Army. ``It would make me hesitant to donate a car again.'' Her vehicle was sold for $1,350 by the Salvation Army, according to DMV records. It was impounded after a traffic stop, abandoned, and went up for sale at Cream's Auto Towing on Santa Rosa Avenue for $1,800. At Cream's Towing, cars most likely taken from undocumented immigrants sit behind a chain-link fence. The glove compartments still contain miscellaneous items -- an address book in Spanish, a Spanish-language sports magazine and odd receipts. One car displays a sticker for Spanish radio station Exitos 100.9. A white dry-erase board in the front office lists a handful of ``lien sale'' cars seized most likely from illegal immigrants. The cars have been forfeited because the state mandatory 30-day impound puts the recovery cost at $1,500 or more. ``I've spent a lot of money on cars, but there's no other way,'' Jorge, an illegal immigrant who lives in Santa Rosa, said in Spanish. ``You feel very bad, and it's worse when it happens over and over again. You wonder how you're going to get to work.'' Jorge, who agreed to speak about his experience on condition that only his first name be used, supports a wife and two children working for a local store. The car he currently drives to work every day is registered to his wife, an illegal immigrant with an out-of-state license. He said he's had eight vehicles impounded in the past eight years. ``These tow companies are making a lot of money off of us,'' he said. Towing yard owners and employees insist they are making barely enough money to recover their towing and storage costs, and that many of the cars they tow are junkers that don't bring much through lien sales. ``They've gotten smart,'' said William Todd, the owner of Able Auto Body Tow on Petaluma Hill Road, one of the 11 tow companies utilized by the Santa Rosa Police Department on a rotation basis. ``They're buying cars for $300 or $400 and if they lose a few of those in a year, that's only $1,200,'' he said. Luis' brother-in-law doesn't dispute that, but said some illegal immigrants are starting to spend a little more on cars because ``junkers'' are more apt to draw the attention of police. ``Cops tend to follow you until you make a mistake,'' he said. Sgt. Doug Schlief, head of the traffic division of the Santa Rosa Police Department, said that's a misperception. ``It's not a tactic we employ here,'' he said. ``I find it hard to believe somebody would waste their time doing that.'' Michelle Inskeep, part owner of Yarbrough Bros. Towing Inc. said she sometimes sees the same vehicle towed twice on a 30-day impound. In such cases, it's possible the car has gone from one undocumented immigrant to another. Towing yard workers said sometimes a licensed driver will arrive with several people. The licensed driver will then make the purchase for one of the other people. The seller then usually submits a ``notice of release of liability'' to the DMV. And although proof of insurance is required to renew vehicle registration, there is no such requirement when transferring ownership or registering a newly purchased vehicle. So undocumented immigrants can have the car transferred to their name without a license or proof of insurance: The car is legally theirs, but they have no legal way to drive it in California. Steve Haskins, a DMV spokesman, said there is ``no requirement that the purchaser of a car have a driver's license. Thus an undocumented immigrant could buy and register a vehicle in his or her name.'' In many cases, undocumented immigrants do not go through with the registration. Police say that a large number of unlicensed drivers they pull over are driving cars registered in someone else's name. For those who do register, a growing number of insurance companies are insuring illegal immigrants who present out-of-state or Mexican driver's licenses. That's the case for Luis' brother-in-law. Like Luis, he is also an illegal immigrant. But he lived briefly in Nevada and obtained a driver's license there when the law was more lenient. That license has allowed him to register and insure the Chevy Cavalier, as well as other vehicles used by the extended family. He renews by mail, which gives him the appearance of compliance as a licensed driver when stopped by police. But California law requires new residents to obtain a valid state license within 10 days of arriving here. And Nevada officials think he's a resident of that state. Luis now drives his own Jeep to work, a car he's lost and retrieved before. He had purchased the car at a local used car lot for almost $8,000 using a friend's driver's license. The Jeep was then registered through the friend's sister-in-law. When the car was impounded by police three years ago at a traffic stop, he still owed a significant amount of money on a car loan he received to purchase it. So the car dealer stepped in to protect its interests. The car was recovered by the used car dealer before the end of the 30-day tow seizure period and held by the dealer for the remainder of that period -- all perfectly legal. When the 30 days were over, Luis paid the dealer a $700 storage and tow fee, and returned to making his regular monthly payments. A major source of vehicles for undocumented immigrants is their friends or relatives. Cash is exchanged for a pink slip and a liability release form sent to the DMV. But ownership rarely feels permanent. For many illegal immigrants a car is simply something you borrow for a time at great expense before it gets taken from you. Luis, who fears the outcome of his court hearing in late May, said the constant loss of vehicles is an economic blow that can push illegal immigrants deeper underground. ``You're demoralized,'' he said in Spanish. ``These are times when you are starting to build a life. But when this happens, it's like they cut your wings.''
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