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Rep. James Mills legislation targets vehicles of illegal immigrants
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State Rep. James Mills is proposing a bill that will allow authorities to seize the vehicles of illegal immigrants who are stopped for traffic violations or other reasons. - photo by Robin Michener Nathan

The dean of Hall County’s legislative delegation has proposed a bill that would be another step in the state’s effort to enforce immigration laws.

Rep. James Mills, R-Chestnut Mountain, said his bill would allow law enforcement agencies to confiscate the vehicles of illegal immigrants who are involved in an accident or violate traffic laws.

"If there is a traffic violation or you’re involved in a wreck and during the course of that, the police determine a person is undocumented and here illegally, the vehicle is taken and becomes property of the local jurisdiction," Mills said.

He said that all too often, someone is involved in a crash with a person who is in the country illegally and does not have the state-required liability insurance.

"If you’re going to do that, I’d like to send the message, ‘We’re going to take your car,’" Mills said. "If you want to risk that, we’ll take your car."

Mills said he is giving thought to introducing another immigration-related bill that would make homestead exemptions on property taxes available only to legal residents.

Also in Mills plans is reviving a proposal to address the distribution of local option sales tax funds for schools.

He said the amendment to the state constitution would mandate the distribution of sales tax funds based on the number of students in the school district.

"It would keep a school system that bleeds over into two counties from holding either of them hostage," Mills said.

While the proposal would apply statewide, he admits that it would affect the city of Buford’s school system, which gets a portion of the school sales tax levy in Hall County.

"That protects the tax dollars that should be going to our students," he said.

The measure was passed by the House last year, but was defeated in the Senate.