What if the worker is an undocumented immigrant? And should a person have to decide between the risk of unaddressed injuries and the risk of deportation if they seek medical care?
Instead of making it easier for these people to get solid ground under their feet, including improved health and a permanent home, several states — including Ohio, Colorado, Montana, New Jersey, Georgia, South Carolina, and others — have attempted to enact laws that punish these people for their injuries instead.
In Ohio, undocumented workers can’t seek medical and other benefits using the workers’ compensation system, even if they have gotten severely injured at work. These laws also seek to close off undocumented workers from using the nation’s court systems to redress the conditions that resulted in their getting injured in the first place.
These states didn’t see these laws over the finish line, but it wasn’t for lack of trying. One reason was that it became clear that these laws would raise, not lower, the likelihood of on-the-job injuries and incentivize employers to hire immigrants to take advantage of their unprotected status.
Read the source article at International Policy Digest
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