News Update - July 24, 2010

By Alan Lee, Esq.

Basic Worker Rights That All Workers, Undocumented or Not, Are Entitled To

In light of recent legislation being passed all around the United States basically stripping away the basic human rights of undocumented immigrants, it seems that undocumented immigrants are becoming more and more helpless as they watch themselves become less and less human in the eyes of the American citizen.

Fortunately, it appears that undocumented workers may actually be protected by the law in more ways than known. In the article by Gary Endelman and Cyrus D. Mehta, Rights of Undocumented Workers Under Federal Law, the two writers touch upon federal labor laws that are designed to protect all workers, regardless of immigration status. For instance, undocumented laborers are still allowed to sue under the Fair Labor Standards Act should employers fail to pay wages or cause any damages.  The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act as well as the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act are both designed to protect any workers and provide compensation benefits should the worker be injured during the job. Despite the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 deeming it illegal for companies to hire undocumented workers, these same workers are still entitled to recover compensation for any lost wages under New York law. Moreover, despite the ruling in 2003 by the Supreme Court in Hoffman Plastic Compounds Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board that individuals lacking proper documentation should not expect compensation under the National Labor Relations Board, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act still remains intact to protect any labor rights, focusing not on immigrant rights, but solely on human rights.

It is therefore crucial that all laborers, especially undocumented laborers, be made aware of their rights as workers. It is with this knowledge that undocumented laborers can take the first step towards challenging any further exploitation by their employers.


The author is a 30+ year practitioner of immigration law based in New York City. He was awarded the Sidney A. Levine prize for best legal writing at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 1977 and has written extensively on immigration over the past years for the ethnic newspapers, World Journal, Sing Tao, Pakistan Calling, Muhasha and OCS. He has testified as an expert on immigration in civil court proceedings and was recognized by the Taiwan government in 1985 for his work protecting human rights. His article, "The Bush Temporary Worker Proposal and Comparative Pending Legislation: an Analysis" was Interpreter Releases' cover display article at the American Immigration Lawyers Association annual conference in 2004, and his victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in a case of first impression nationwide, Firstland International v. INS, successfully challenged INS' policy of over 40 years of revoking approved immigrant visa petitions under a nebulous standard of proof. Its value as precedent, however, was short-lived as it was specifically targeted by the Administration in the Intelligence Reform Act of 2004.

This article © 2010 Alan Lee, Esq.

 

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