I haven’t attempted to be all political and indignant in awhile, but a story that ran in the paper yesterday stuck as well as led me into several lengthy discussions that I’m still trying to process.
Our good buddy JB wrote a story (which y’all can peep in all its glory after the jump) about an illegal from Mexico who killed his back while working for this dude. Insurance covered his injury for about 2 months when it discovered that the SSN the cat provided was false and thus stopped paying. Well now, the cat is suing to get paid.
As a rule, I’m not anti-immigrant, and I cringe whenever I hear about these nutbags wanting to build walls along the border with gun turrets and all that crap. But I have to say, I got a little pissed off when I got to the part where the guy said:
I want to work, but I can’t. And now, they aren’t paying me.
“What do you MEAN, they aren’t paying you?” I thought to myself. “When I’m ill or hurt or decide to take time off, do you think I get paid? Fuck no I don’t get paid, and I’m born and bred here. I don’t even have freakin’ health insurance if I DID get ill or hurt. But you, sir, are in the country illegally, and you provided false ID. What makes you think you’re entitled to anything!??”
I took my indignance along with questions over to JB; I didn’t cover the story, so obviously there were facts to which I wasn’t privy, as in specifically, what is the employer’s responsibility in ensuring that the identification a job applicant provides is legit. Well, regardless of whether the employer provided the ID for him or he provided it on his own, therein lies the problem: All the employer’s going to have to say is, “Well, we thought he was legal. Bad us!” and he’ll get off scot free (which totally baffles me because with all the ways we have to check on a brother or sister these days? Please, but whatever). I don’t agree one bit that the insurance company should pay for the guy because rules are rules. Then again, small businesses (and even large ones, undoubtedly) always cry about the wages they have to pay people, so then lawmakers end up looking the other way when it comes to immigrant labor, thereby circumventing a whole other set of rules altogether, and now my head hurts.
Story’s beneath the fold. Any thoughts, y’all?