Complete insanity.

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Sunday, May 21, 2006

By MIKE KELLY



VICTOR MANUEL CABALLERO says he only wanted a decent job when he sneaked across the border from Mexico five years ago. Thanks to a ruling last week by the state Supreme Court, he has achieved a special American status even though he still lives here illegally:
He can collect damages for being hurt in an auto accident.

We hear much these days about illegal immigrants -- how desperate they are for good jobs here, how many risk their lives to slip across the border, how so many now hope to pursue their lives in America with some measure of forgiveness and amnesty even though they clearly violated immigration laws.

The case of Victor Manuel Cabellero falls into a whole new zone of troubles. He not only lives here illegally; the state Supreme Court has now opened a legal door for him and other undocumented immigrants to collect from a special state fund set up to protect anyone hurt in a car accident with an uninsured driver.

To put it another way: Victor Caballero may not have the legal right to actually live in New Jersey, but New Jersey says he has the legal right to receive generous benefits for being here.

Go figure.

If nothing else, Caballero's story illustrates how meaningless immigration laws are and how inept our government has become in dealing with this problem.

He was 17 when he left his native Mexico and illegally crossed into the United States in early 2001. He went first to Los Angeles, then bought a ticket on a commercial flight to New Jersey and headed for the Shore town of Bradley Beach.

This was hardly a haphazard trip. According to court papers, Caballero had carefully planned his travel itinerary – not unusual for illegal immigrants.

Caballero's cousins lived in Bradley Beach. Indeed, Caballero's brother, Sandro, had already made the trek from Mexico to Bradley Beach in 1996, and his father followed – illegally -- three years later, settling in nearby Belmar. Caballero's mother arrived in 2003, also illegally, court papers say.

When Victor arrived, he moved into an apartment with Sandro and two cousins. Victor quickly got a job in a restaurant. But after two months, he moved up to a computer repair job, earning around $400 a week.

That may not seem like much, but in Mexico, Caballero was making only $6 a day. The computer job was not easy either. Caballero routinely worked up to 15 hours straight. His day began at 5 a.m., when he would be picked up by a co-worker, 19-year-old Ricardo Martinez.

Only two weeks into the computer job, court papers say, Martinez fell asleep at the wheel one morning. The car veered off the road and struck a parked tractor trailer.

Martinez was lucky -- he walked away from the accident with only cuts and bruises. Caballero was badly hurt, though.

He was transported to the Jersey Shore Medical Center where surgeons repaired injuries to his abdomen and intestines. Caballero stayed a week at the hospital, then needed another six weeks to recover before he could return to work. The cost: $38,300 in medical bills and $1,482 in lost wages.

Caballero had no medical insurance, nor did his family. But that wasn't the end of the problems.

Police and hospital officials turned to Ricardo Martinez, the driver of the car. Would his insurance cover Caballero?

Not a chance.

Martinez was not only driving without car insurance when he hit the tractor-trailer, but his car registration – from Pennsylvania, police say – had expired. Instead of throwing him in jail, cops merely ticketed Martinez and let him go.

And then, things got worse.

Martinez disappeared. Authorities now believe he, too, was living illegally in New Jersey. The difference, of course, was that Caballero had some serious hospital bills to pay.

Caballero's father did what most Americans would do when faced with having to pay bills for an auto accident they did not cause. He called a lawyer.

Caballero's attorney, Victor Covelli of Belmar, says his client was worried that he would be deported when he filed suit against fellow illegal immigrant, Ricardo Martinez. Complicating the issue, Caballero was also suing to collect from a special New Jersey fund for anyone injured in an accident with an uninsured driver. But like those police who handled the accident and let Martinez go with only a traffic ticket, court officers looked the other way and did not arrest and deport Caballero when he testified in his lawsuit.

Caballero lost twice, when courts ruled he was not a legal resident and therefore had no right to the special accident fund. But last week, the state Supreme Court ruled in his favor, declaring him a resident even though he was here illegally.

How did the Supreme Court reach such a conclusion? Well, consider this line of reasoning from the opinion authored by Supreme Court Justice James Zazzali:

"We recognize the apparent paradox that exists when an undocumented alien intends to remain in this state but that alien, because of his or her illegal status, is subject to deportation at any time ... The fact that an undocumented alien may some day be forced to return to his or her homeland does not necessarily defeat the intent to remain. That is especially true in light of the uncertain nature of deportation."

In other words, the fact that Caballero reached New Jersey makes him a resident, even though he broke the law to get here. Maybe Justice Zazzali and the entire Supreme Court should consider a class in remedial logic.

Victor Manuel Caballero is now 23. His lawyer will not divulge his address, only saying that that Caballero now lives with his girlfriend and their baby "in the Lakewood area" and still works at the computer repair shop. Because of the auto accident, Caballero cannot lift heavy computers, cannot run, has trouble sleeping, and cannot eat "some foods that he enjoyed before the accident," the Supreme Court ruled.

The $38,300 bill from the medical bill was paid by a special hospital charity fund. So why is Caballero suing?

His lawyer says the Supreme Court ruling makes him eligible to collect up to $15,000 -- for pain and suffering.

Welcome to America.