Thread: Rough terrain for illegal immigrants

Rough terrain for illegal immigrants
Email|Print| Text size – + February 18, 2008
RHODE ISLAND Governor Donald Carcieri's wish to deny workers' compensation benefits to undocumented workers injured on the job is a misguided and potentially dangerous approach that could endanger all workers, documented and undocumented alike ("Illegal workers targeted in R.I.," Page A1, Feb. 12).

more stories like thisMedical care and benefits paid to injured workers are not handouts, as Carcieri seems to suggest, but are an inherent part of the contract between employer and employee. Further, perverse incentives would result from disqualifying undocumented workers from workers' compensation benefits. Employers could hire undocumented workers for the most hazardous jobs, knowing that they would face no insurance costs if the workers were hurt or killed. Denying these workers legal rights would likely lead to poorer conditions for all workers in the jobs and industries that use immigrant labor, as increasingly powerless workers are less likely to voice their safety concerns.

Denying benefits to any workers who sustain injuries in the course of a job is not the answer to a complicated immigration picture that often results in exploitation.

KERRY SOUZA
Boston

LENORE AZAROFF
Lowell

AFTER READING Tuesday's City & Region section, I wanted to cut out Adrian Walker's column "Forgiving a killer" and mail it to Terry Gorman, founder of Rhode Islanders for Immigration Law Enforcement. Gorman was quoted in that day's front-page story about efforts to crack down on illegal workers in that state.

What a remarkable juxtaposition of attitudes toward one's fellow human beings. Gorman responds to his friend's misfortune (in the form of a $6,600 hospital bill) by pointing fingers and looking to hurt those who happen to be here illegally. Meanwhile, two young women whose mother was murdered respond with forgiveness and empathy, even to her killer.

One of these stories is a sad example of the mean-spiritedness with which we are capable of treating fellow human beings; the other is a model of charity and generosity in spite of tragedy, one that should be an example to us all. I can't resist noting that it is immigrants to this country who displayed the latter qualities.

NINA RAO
Framingham

© Copyright 2008 Globe

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/edito ... mmigrants/

more stories like thisMedical care and benefits paid to injured workers are not handouts, as Carcieri seems to suggest, but are an inherent part of the contract between employer and employee.

And that contract you speak of was an illegal contract because the illegal invader has no legal right to work in this country. Thus, the contract is null and void and not enforceable.

The way that crooked employers save money by employing illegal aliens is more often by non payment of benefits than paying them less than legal minimum wage. For them to not have any sort of legal liability as a result of the unsafe working conditions they create is not a good idea. Employers who hire illegals often also cut corners in other ways.


It is better for the government to set up a system that would charge employers the same even if the employee is illegal. It could then pay out only to an injured illegal alien only the amount of lost income the illegal would have lost living and working in their legal home country.


The balance between those two figures would go to the Labor Department to investigate for other cases.

I say keep the government out of such situations Richard. If a business is going to hire an illegal in an effort to exploit and circumvent the law ; then let the employer pay the entire claim if an illegal worker goes out on II.