Is the tide turning D.C. court: Illegal immigrants can receive workers' comp Viva La Raza?

by **bellden** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:23 pm

An illegal immigrant injured while working can receive workers' compensation, the District's highest court has ruled.
Palemon Gonzales was working at a D.C. bar as a busboy on June 30, 2005, when a customer threw a bottle that hit Gonzales in the right eye, blinding him. Gonzales, an illegal immigrant, had to have his dislocated lens reattached through surgery, and he wasn't able to return to work -- at a different bar -- until Jan. 25, 2006. By then, Gonzales was already in the process of trying to collect workers' compensation benefits. Asylum Company, which owned the bar where Gonzales was injured, fought the claim, in part, on the grounds that it contends an illegal immigrant can't receive workers' compensation.

The D.C. Court of Appeals, however, says one can and Gonzales may now receive about $11,000.

One of the bar's owners, David Karim, is now a partner in the D.C. nightclub Josephine. He testified during Gonzales' workers' compensation hearing that the company wasn't aware until after the injury that Gonzales was an illegal immigrant, court documents said. The company thought Gonzales was Armando Casarrubias, Gonzales' cousin, whose name was on the immigration green card that Gonzales presented when he applied for a job at the bar.

It wasn't until July 17, 2005, a few weeks after Gonzales was hit by the bottle, that Karim said Asylum learned Gonzales' real identity, documents said. Up until that day, the hospital had been sending bills for Gonzales' surgery to Asylum. But the bills were in Gonzales' name and not in Casarrubias'. On July 17, 2005, however, Asylum pieced the puzzle together when Gonzales returned to the bar and asked to restart his job despite not being cleared to do so by his doctor. The bar management turned Gonzales away anyway because, Karim testified, they now knew Gonzales was an illegal immigrant.

The workers' compensation board awarded Gonzales benefits and the appeals court ruled that is legal under the District's workers compensation laws because, in part, doing so is "consistent with the principle that the [workers' compensation] Act is to be construed liberally to achieve its humanitarian purpose."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2010/12/dc-court-illegal-immigrants-can-receive-workers-comp#ixzz19BQdNql2

by **bachir93** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:26 pm

Think about this the next time you decide to save money by hiring illegal aliens; If an employee breaks the law it doesn't give the employer the right to break the law.

by **garwyli91** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:28 pm

the bar hired an illegal, so it is only right they should pay workman's comp.

now that he has been identified, he needs to be deported, and so should his cousin for participating in the fraud

by **jaren12** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:30 pm

Question is, why wasn't he deported in 2005? Hell with his eye, let it bleed as he gets on the bus back to South America, he is not our responsibility.

by **ardwyad** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:31 pm

That is why the employers should make damn sure the people they hire are whom they claim they are, and are able to work in the US legally. Although Gonzales is an illegal alien, he was injured on the job, so his employers owe him. I don't believe they didn't know he was using someone else's green card, or that they even bothered to make sure he was legitimately able to work in the US. Whatever the case, someone should be paying the man's hospital bills; some of it should be recovered from the ****** who threw the bottle.

by **langford59** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:39 pm

What do you propose to do with the 30 million unemployed Americans whose unemployment benefits will be running out soon? It's all good and fine to think you want to help some other country but you can't ignore the fact that there are still people living in this country you would so desperately like to hand over to Mexico. We will all be exiled, executed...? Seriously, what's the plan for US citizens once illegal migrants take over?

by **burt** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:45 pm

Ironically this may cause some employers to hire a citizen instead. Between workers comp and lawsuits they may as well hire a citizen. The point of hiring an illegal is cheap labor with no strings attached, attaching some strings may be the tipping point for most employers who merely want to save a few bucks.

Also, yet again... I have lost count... The Dream Act was smashed. Every time this bill comes up the people rise up against it and that is because it goes against our very nature to reward someone who breaks the law.

by **marmion** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:50 pm

I am not a lawyer or anything like that but I believe if he worked there all that time and got injured on the job be he called whatever (legal, illegal or what type of immigrant I do not know) but since the company did not clear his immigration status before hiring him they should pay him workers comp it's only human. And for GOD sake the man got injured on the job doesn't that count?

by **crosbey** » Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:57 pm

More judges legislating from the bench.

Workers comp should be paid to Armando Casarrubias on proof of an injury. Since the illegal in question is not Armando who he claimed he is owed nothing. Armando was hird not Gonzales as thats what the papers say who it was.

When will we fix our country to accept illegals are illegal and are owed nothing.

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