MOULTRIE — When looking at the issue of how unlicensed drivers get tags and insurance, one obvious question is how.

One way that those who are not licensed can get those documents is by having someone else conduct the deal.

That arrangement, in which an unlicensed driver pays another person who has proper documentation to purchase a vehicle, insurance and tag, is called a “straw deal,” Colquitt County Sheriff Al Whittington said.

They often are conducted on used car lots, with the licensed driver buying a vehicle in his or her name for the unlicensed driver. Often the unlicensed driver also is an illegal immigrant.

“It’s the legal person buying the vehicle for the illegal person,” Whittington said. “Say the payment’s $250 a month, so they’re paying him or her $300. You’re not supposed to do that. A lot of the Hispanic population are exploited in that manner.”

The car must have three months’ insurance when it’s driven off the lot, but often the driver who takes charge of the vehicle will not purchase insurance after that time, Whittington said.

Colquitt County Tax Commissioner Cindy Harvin said that it is not uncommon for a person to have a large number of cars registered in his or her name, certainly more than a single person would be able to drive.

A recent example is a woman who is a driver with a valid Georgia driver’s license who had 27 cars registered in her name.

“She’s letting them title them in her name so they can get a tag,” Harvin said. “Then when they get a tag they let the insurance lapse. The state is cracking down on it.”

Licensed drivers who are part of the straw deal are starting to get letters when insurance lapses, Harvin said, as tougher laws go into effect. The new laws mean suspension of vehicle registration for three months or more, and eventually hefty fines for the driver who took part in the deal.

The office also has been seeing a large number of fake insurance cards and licenses, she said. Those fake documents are turned over to the sheriff’s office and the person who presents the document is not allowed to purchase a tag.

In order to purchase a tag, the driver must have a valid Georgia driver’s license on a newly purchased vehicle, as well as proof of Georgia liability insurance and proof of residence, Harvin said.

Whittington said it may not be a popular proposal in the current immigration environment, but he thinks that Latino residents who are here illegally should be able to get a driver’s permit. The state could charge a significant amount, perhaps $200, which immigrants would gladly pay for the opportunity to drive legally, for a one-year permit.

With the current immigration system, it is inevitable that illegal immigrants will be here, he said.

Sheriff’s Capt. Julius Cox said that when the sheriff’s office arrests an illegal immigrant, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not going to pick him up. Out of about 2,000 Hispanics who were jailed last year, ICE only came to get about 20, and those are people who have committed aggravated felonies.

As for the rest, once they make bail the sheriff’s office has no authority to keep them, Whittington said.

Allowing them a legal means to drive makes sense because it eliminates problems of no insurance, which affects other drivers when there is an accident, and allows them to do what they’re doing anyway -- driving to work, he said.

“We all know they’re here,” Whittington said. “Everybody knows they’re here. What I would like to see is someone introduce the legislation for the driver’s permit, where if I’m illegal and I want a 12-month permit I agree to be finger printed, photographed, agree to a check to be sure I’m not an absconded felon, not wanted in Mexico or wherever I’m from.”

At a church event with a group of Latinos, Whittington said, most of the group admitted to driving without a license because they have to go to work, and said they would continue to do so.

“Whether it’s Canadians, Cubans, Haitians, whatever, our immigration laws have failed,” he said. “It’s people like that, they come here, they’re working in our community, they’re prospering.

“All I’m looking at is the big picture, where we’re not tying up police officers and deputy sheriffs and state patrol to escort these folks back and forth to jail, we’re reducing the population of this jail, we’re not feeding them and we’re not providing them medical care.”