The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear arguments whether an illegal alien should receive retroactively receive disability and compensation for work-related injuries. It is a Louisiana case. The Supreme Court, as is typical, did not provide a reason, but its decision not to hear the case will leave the issue with each state. Many state legislatures and courts have decided including California which allows illegal aliens to receive benefits. Some states do not so allow.
In the case at hand, Vaughan Sheet Metal & Roofing L.L.C vs. Antonio Garcia Rodriguez, the issue is whether or not the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) preempts state law awards of workers’ comp benefits to illegal aliens - in particular for disability benefits that could not have been lawfully earned.
Rodriguez was injured performing roofing work at the University of Louisiana Lafayette for Integrity Contracting, his director employer. Integrity was a subcontractor to Vaughan. Rodriguez admitted he was in the country illegally from Mexico. Vaughan did not hire him and had no knowledge of his citizenship status, but because Integrity was having a policy dispute with its insurer, under Louisiana law, Rodriguez was allowed to file a workers’ comp claim with Vaughan as the statutory employer or principal contractor. Vaughan denied the benefits and Rodriguez sued Vaughn. Vaughan lost in lower courts and petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve the issue.
In its petition it argued in pertinent part: “The courts of numerous states are split over whether the IRCA prohibition against employing illegal aliens pre-empts an award of workers’ compensation benefits to an illegal alien, in whole or in part. Resolution of this recurring issue will provide uniformity and continuity to workers’ compensation systems nationwide. [A] dozen states have considered and decided this issue at various reported appellate levels with many different results. Failure to address and resolve these inconsistencies on a nationwide basis can only lead to future litigation in the remaining states…”
In 2005, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals ruled in Farmer Brothers Coffee v. WCAB (Ruiz), that illegal aliens are entitled to receive workers’ comp benefits even if the employer unknowingly hires them. The court ruled that IRCA is meant to sanction employers for employing illegal aliens not deny them work protections and benefits.
In California, current law holds that all employees regardless of status are entitled to full workers’ comp benefits. Some years ago there was a failed move in the legislature to remove the disability portion for illegal aliens.
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