A court ruling awarding workers' compensation benefits to an illegal alien is drawing fire in Florida.
A panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee ruled on Tuesday that Luis Aragon was entitled to benefits after falling from a roof at a Jacksonville job site, suffering injuries to his foot and arm.
Concluding that the employer, HDV Construction Systems, should have known it had an undocumented worker in its employ, the judges said it was only right that the company foot the bill. To rule otherwise, the judges said, would have put Aragon's medical bills on the taxpayers, presumably through unreimbursed emergency-room care.
Other courts in other states have made similar rulings, but the issue is far from settled with the general public.
"The whole scenario is bizarre -- from the construction company to the judges," said George Fuller, an immigration-control activist from the Sarasota area.
State Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne, said he was incensed by the decision, but not necessarily at the undocumented worker.
"The only mistake the judges made was to make workers' comp insurance 'must pay.' The insurance company ought to make the employer pay every dime of that claim. I don't care if that puts the employer out of business," Workman said.
Workman said he would support legislation barring illegals from receiving benefits through the state's workers' comp system. Any liability in the case of an undocumented worker should fall solely on the employer, he said.
Florida law makes it a misdemeanor to hire an illegal alien, but the statute is virtually unenforceable because it includes the loophole-laden qualifier "knowingly," says Rep. Bill Snyder, R-Stuart.
"It's extremely unwieldy and difficult to prove now. Without E-Verify, we're dead in the water," he said.
Snyder authored legislation last session to require the use of the federal E-Verify program to check employees' eligibility to work legally in this country. His measure was defeated by opposition from business groups and immigration-rights activists.
A watered-down E-Verify bill passed the Senate but was never taken up by the House.
Likening the use of low-wage illegal immigrants to the antebellum slave trade, Snyder said there are "substantial hidden costs that we are unknowingly subsidizing." He speculated that the cost of workers' comp premiums will be driven up by decisions such as the 1st DCA's.
That said, Snyder believes that all injured workers deserve to collect workers' comp benefits, and that the onus belongs on the employer.
"It's like having a pool without a fence and claiming no responsibility if someone drowns there," he said.
Workman agrees.
"With the lure of cheap labor, we've created a black market of humans. It stops and starts at the employer," he said.
In rendering its decision, the three-judge DCA panel declared, "There is no dispute that the Florida Legislature has expressed an unyielding, textual intent that aliens, including those who are illegal and unlawfully employed, be covered and compensated under the Florida Workers Compensation Law."
But Bryan Griffith, spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, criticized the judges for flouting underlying employment law.
"If you allow [employers] to get out of these other labor laws you're extending their ability to break law," he said from his office in Washington, D.C.
The irony builds when aggrieved workers, without a valid Social Security number or green card, use the court system, often with taxpayer-funded legal counsel, to enforce their "rights" in a country they entered illegally.
"This has been happening around the country. Courts usually force compensation," Griffith said.
The News Service of Florida reported that workers' compensation covered Aragons medical treatment, and that Judge of Compensation Claims Neal P. Pitts also awarded permanent total disability benefits.
HDV Construction and its insurance carrier contended that Aragon was not entitled to such benefits because he could hold jobs that were not as physically demanding as construction. They also said the lower-court judge had improperly factored in Aragons illegal status and lack of English skills in determining that he could not get another job.
Pitts awarded the benefits to Aragon through Nov. 2, 2010, the date of his ruling. But the appeals court went further this week, saying Aragon could receive the benefits on a continuing basis.
HDV was not available for comment. Associated Industries of Florida, a vehement opponent of E-Verify and other immigration-control legislation, did not return a message left by Sunshine State News.
Robin Stublen, a tea party activist and proponent of E-Verify, said Florida's workers' comp board should look into levying fines against employers who hire illegals and that offending companies' books should be audited.
And he wasn't ready to cut Aragon any slack, either.
"No one forced this man to come here. He knew, or should have known, that he was breaking our laws. He should not be rewarded for breaking those laws," Stublen said.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
