“Seventy-one percent of the people arrested for driving without a license in Dalton from August 2009 through July 2010 were Hispanic, police records show.”<\/p>\n
Aug. 23, 2010 Chattaonooga Times<\/em> DALTON, Ga. \u2014 For Sandra Reyes, Georgia was home since she was 9, the place where she graduated from high school and became involved in her community.<\/p>\n And where the reality sank in that she was an illegal immigrant.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t realize what it really meant to be undocumented until I was about to graduate from high school,\u201d the 25-year-old said in a telephone interview from Dallas. \u201cSo I really never thought I was going to have to leave Dalton.\u201d<\/p>\n She and her husband, Ignacio, 31, left Dalton four months ago in the face of tougher immigration enforcement and high unemployment rates, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe situation in Dalton is not the most ideal for undocumented immigrants,\u201d said Reyes, who recently graduated from an online college with a bachelor\u2019s degree in psychology. \u201cYou never know when you might get stopped and end up being deported.\u201d<\/p>\n The Reyeses are not alone. There are no hard numbers on how many illegal immigrants have left the Dalton-Whitfield County area because no one knows how many were there to start with. But some in the community say evidence points to an exodus of Hispanic immigrants at least over the past two years.<\/p>\n \u201cAnecdotally, many feel that many of the male population within the Hispanic community may have left looking for jobs, and that\u2019s certainly what most any of us would do,\u201d said Brian Anderson, president and chief executive officer of the Dalton-Whitfield Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n Daniel Luna, a Mexico native and music teacher in Dalton who\u2019s here legally, said he has lost students because they became unemployed or were deported.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost a given that, if you get stopped for any reason and you are driving without a license, you are going to get arrested and if (you) are in the country illegally, deported,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of my students have offered to pay more if I teach them in Chattanooga,\u201d he said. \u201cOthers often miss class because they can\u2019t find anyone to drive them.\u201d<\/p>\n Previously, Dalton Mayor David Pennington said the city picked up less garbage, that more apartment buildings and trailer parks are empty and that more businesses have closed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhether that is due to any kind of (out) migration or just the general economy is hard to measure,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n Because the local Hispanic student population has not decreased, the belief is that the children and perhaps their mothers and grandmothers have stayed behind, he said.<\/p>\n MORE POLICE ATTENTION?<\/p>\n Luna and Reyes say there have been more police roadblocks, especially in areas with high concentrations of Hispanics.<\/p>\n Seventy-one percent of the people arrested for driving without a license in Dalton from August 2009 through July 2010 were Hispanic, police records show.<\/p>\n Since drivers must produce a Social Security number and proof of citizenship or legal status, people in the country illegally can\u2019t get a driver\u2019s license in Georgia or Tennessee.<\/p>\n But Dalton Police Department spokesman Bruce Frazier said police only set up road checks for seat-belt or drunken-driving enforcement operations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t discriminate based on race, gender or ethnicity,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why that perception would be out there.\u201d<\/p>\n Frazier said people don\u2019t get pulled over simply for driving without a license.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to break some traffic violation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Anyone who feels discriminated against \u201ccan file a complaint with our department, and it will be investigated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As of July 31, the Whitfield County Sheriff\u2019s Office had identified 422 people for deportation in the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, compared with 379 in the previous fiscal year…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nLeaving Dalton<\/strong><\/p>\n
\nPerla Trevizo <\/p>\n