Essay On Illegal Alien Workers

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Employment Law: Can Illegal Alien Workers have the Right to Enforce State Law Regarding Worker Safety or other Employment laws? As of 2004, the nation’s undocumented immigrant population increased to 10.3 million since 2000 in the United States. California and Texas account for 61 percent of the undocumented population where Arizona and North Carolina are two of the fastest growing states that often hire undocumented workers (Lopez, 2005). Hiring illegal alien workers has had an inherent tension between state workers’ compensation law and federal immigration law. Among other things, employment law provides the opportunity for wage replacement of disability due to workplace injury and if possible, promotes return-to-work in the worker’s former job (Annarino & Hayden, 2006). It is also noted under the federal immigration law that undocumented or illegal aliens cannot lawfully work in the United States and employers cannot consciously employ them. However, insufficient enforcement of immigration laws had enabled the widespread hiring of undocumented workers in low-wage and labor-intensive sectors of the U.S. economy. An imposing question of this dilemma is whether illegal alien workers have the right to enforce state law…show more content…
The question is whether the undocumented worker is eligible for employment benefits. Some statutes answer this question explicitly while others, the courts are left to conclude the legislature’s intent from broad definitions of entitled workers. Although compensation benefits may be restricted by federal immigration law, even where illegal workers are covered. Eventually, in the absence of legislative reform, there is considerable risk of either leaving some deserving workers under-compensated or of discriminating in favor of illegal

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