As we initially wrote about a couple weeks back, there have been changes to the Arizona immigration law that officially went into effect today 7/29/2010. A judge ruled yesterday, 24 hours prior to the law becoming enforced that portions of the law would be held out including calling for officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and required immigrants to carry identification papers at all times.

Although Arizona’s new law is far more controversial and being watched very closely similar measures have been put in place in other communities such as Fremont – about 30 miles from Omaha in Nebraska. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures during the first half of 2010, lawmakers in all 50 states introduced 1,374 bills and resolutions seeking in some way to restrict or eliminate illegal immigration; 319 of these have been passed in 44 states.

Samples of the recently passed immigration-related measures in 2010 are: ( A full list of these can be viewed here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38386385/ns/us_news-immigration_a_nation_divided/ )

• Arizona: A new law imposes citizenship requirements for tuition loans and teaching degrees.
• Indiana: A new provision of the state code requires proof of legal residence to obtain a driver licenses.
• Iowa: As part of an occupational safety law, the Legislature requires every person, firm or corporation employing migrant laborers to keep on file a work permit for migrant laborers prior to their employment.
• Kansas: A new law makes it illegal to knowingly employ an illegal immigrant.

Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and South Carolina are all considering full statewide crackdowns modeled on the Arizona law – these laws however are more limited applying restrictions like employment verification and requirements for drivers licenses.

LeadPile is located in Phoenix, the heart of Arizona and will definitely continue to keep an eye on the new laws to keep you up to date!

NEXT: Wisconsin please step to the plate. It appears WI is the next state to have lawmakers trying to pass a bill that would cap the interest rate on payday loans. Todaystmj news is reporting that Wisconsin’s new proposal would cap interest rates at 36 percent annually. Similar to other states and potential laws being passed, there is opposition to this potential law and it will all have to pan out in court. Leadpile will keep an eye on this.

We all know what is going on with the economy and how it is affecting the auto industry. However, yesterday MSNBC stated that Michigan (home of GM, Ford, and Chrysler) lawmakers are reaching out to the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and our nation’s treasury secretary to help loosen up the credit requirements. This is in hopes that something can be passed with regards to the 700 billion dollar bailout. Lawmakers are concerned the status of the economy is going to cripple our auto industry.

The sad part about this is the lawmakers are estimating at a reduction in car sales by almost 30%. They estimate this could drive car sales down to roughly 11 million vehicles sold per year, and this is lowest figure since 1983. At this point, having lawmakers step in might be a good idea to help to prevent a bad situation from becoming devastating to the auto industry.
This sort of drop in demand by consumers wanting a new car, is also affecting the lead volume in our marketplace. Our goal is to still capture those consumers that need and want a car in this tough economy.