Illegal Immigrants Can Get Workers' Compensation, LA Court Rules
By Associated Press - October 26, 2005LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Illegal immigrants who are hurt on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits, a state appeals court ruled.
The 2nd District Court of Appeal made the finding in a case involving Torrance-based coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co., which had tried to deny workers' comp benefits to an employee who was in the country illegally.
The company argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's workers' compensation system, which provides medical care and disability benefits to injured employees.
The court disagreed, upholding an earlier decision against Farmer Bros. by the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board.
"California law has expressly declared immigration status irrelevant to the issue of liability to pay compensation to an injured worker," the three-judge panel said in a unanimous ruling issued late Monday.
A Farmer Bros. spokesman did not immediately return a message left after hours at the company's corporate headquarters.
Experts said the ruling marked the first time a California appeals court confirmed that illegal immigrants have a right to workers' comp benefits.
The plaintiff in the case, Rafael Ruiz, 35, claimed he injured his shoulders, back, neck and hands by repeatedly lifting heavy sacks of coffee beans, according to his attorney's case file.
San Leandro attorney Kari Krogseng, who filed a brief on behalf of the California Applicants' Attorneys Association, which represents injured workers, said the decision affirms "both the common sense application of California law and what every other court in the country has routinely found: that federal immigration law does not pre-empt state workers' compensation laws."
Advocates for tougher immigration control criticized the ruling.
"We can't reward people for breaking the law," said Andy Ramirez, a spokesman for Friends of the Border Patrol, a Covina-based group that sends members to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico.
"Employers of illegal aliens should be charged and prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
The state Department of Finance estimated that 2.6 million illegal immigrants live in California.
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