Undocumented workers in Florida who are hurt on the job are not only being denied workers' comp coverage, they’re being charged with insurance fraud, held in jail, and then deported.
A new investigation by NPR reporter Howard Berkes and ProPublica reveals how a 2003 law in our state is leading the way in denying benefits to unauthorized workers for legitimate workplace injuries. Florida has used its laws to not only deny the benefits to these workers, but often going a step further by charging them with fraud for filing claims, resulting in jail and escalating immigration and deportation proceedings.
Berkes joins Gulf Coast Live to explain how the investigation looked at 14 years of state insurance fraud data, and thousands of pages of court records, to reveal hundreds of cases where employees were arrested under Florida's law for seeking workers' comp, and other cases where workers were arrested after an injury at their workplace.
Also joining the program is Lindsay Ray, immigration attorney with Amigos Center, about the numerous obstacles undocumented immigrants face in obtaining medical care, and justice, in Florida.
