Attorney Concerned That Undocumented Client's Employer Reported to ICE

Thursday, May 18, 2017 | 0

The attorney for an undocumented injured worker is concerned that her client was targeted by immigration officials because his employer reported him to authorities after he filed a workers' compensation claim, WBUR-FM 90.9 reports.

Stacie Sobosik of the Medford workers' compensation firm Sobosik Law said her client, Jose Flores, 37, was arrested by federal immigration agents last week. His employer, Tara Construction, had arranged a meeting with Flores, supposedly to offer him some cash to help his family in the wake of a March injury that has left him out of work for two months, she said. When he arrived at the meeting, though, immigration agents were waiting, and Flores was taken into custody, she said. 

Flores' immigration attorney, Christina Corbaci, said that the situation raises new concerns for her. She used to tell her undocumented clients that reporting work injuries was OK.

"Before, I wouldn't have really had a concern telling someone, 'Yes, you should go ahead to report something like this and assert your rights,'" Corbaci said. "But now we have this added fear that, could an employer in this kind of case just, you know, use someone's immigration situation against them?"

Case law in Massachusetts provides that undocumented workers are entitled to workers' compensation benefits, Sobosik said. Complicating matters in Flores' case, though, was the fact that Tara Construction did not have workers' compensation coverage at the time of Flores' fall from a ladder, which left him with a broken femur, WBUR-FM reports. 

View the public radio station's full story here.