Workers Compensation for Undocumented Aliens?
Workers’ compensation is a set of state laws that allow employees who are injured on the job to get compensation for medical bills and lost wages. Whether or not undocumented aliens, also called “illegal immigrants,” will be covered by workers compensation will depend on the laws in each state and the way that the courts have interpreted those laws. In some states, the laws are very clear about whether illegal immigrants are covered by workers compensation or not. The legislature can decide who should be included and who should be excluded. In most cases, however, the state legislature has not spoken to this issue directly so it is up to the courts to determine if the program is supposed to cover illegal immigrants. The courts may look at things like the history of the workers’ compensation plan and the laws that have been enacted, in order to determine if illegal aliens are the type of worker that the program was intended to include. Since workers compensation is for injured “employee
