Rios v. Ryan Inc....: Virginia Court Rules Undocumented Worker Not Eligible for Workers' Comp

IMMIGRANTS & EMPLOYMENT

Immigrants' Employment Rights and Remedies

RIOS V. RYAN INC....: VIRGINIA COURT RULES UNDOCUMENTED WORKER NOT ELIGIBLE FOR WORKERS' COMP
Immigrants' Rights Update, Vol. 15, No. 2, Mar. 29, 2001

The Virginia Court of Appeals has held that a worker who was undocumented when he was injured on the job in August 1998 was not an "employee" as defined by Virginia's Workers' Compensation Act and therefore is ineligible for workers' compensation benefits. In reaching its decision, the court followed the Virginia Supreme Court's decision in Granados v. Windson Dev. Corp., 257 Va. 103, 509 S.E.2d 290 (1999). That decision held that an undocumented worker is not an employee for purposes of the state's workers' compensation act because "under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, an illegal alien cannot be employed lawfully in the United States." Therefore, according to the Granados decision, the "purported contract of hire" of any alien unlawfully employed in the U.S. is "void and unenforceable."

Subsequent to the Granados decision, the Virginia legislature amended the workers' compensation act to clarify that "employee" means "every person, including aliens and minors, in the service of another under any contract of hire . . . whether lawfully or unlawfully employed." This amendment was effective Apr. 19, 2000. The court in Rios held that the Granados decision was controlling since the petitioner, Mr. Rios, was injured before the amendment took effect. Furthermore, the court stated that it could not give the amendment retroactive effect unless the Virginia Supreme Court declared that the amendment was intended as a legislative interpretation of the original act.

The court rejected Rios's argument that his employment at the time of his injury was lawful because he was either a U.S. citizen or a lawful permanent resident by virtue of his marriage to a U.S. citizen. The court found that Rios continued to be undocumented until the Immigration and Naturalization Service approved an immigration petition filed by his wife on his behalf. The court also rebuffed Rios's argument that the denial to him of workers' compensation benefits violated his constitutional right to equal protection under the law. The benefits were denied, the court held, because Rios failed to meet his burden of establishing that he met the law's definition of "employee."

Rios v. Ryan Inc. Central and Reliance National Indemnity Company, 2001 Va. App. LEXIS 99 (March 6, 2001).