The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center is suing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her official capacity to end the state’s policy of denying worker’s compensation to undocumented immigrants who are injured while working. …

“The reality is, many employers gladly hire workers who don’t have work permits because they can pay them less and get away with more cutting corners on health and safety protections and when workers are inevitably injured, workers compensation insurance companies know they can deny wage loss benefits without challenge,” Galendez said …

John Philo, the executive and legal director of the Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, noted that this issue has already been addressed in Ohio and Minnesota, where in both states undocumented workers have been guaranteed access to worker’s compensation. The Sugar Law Center is representing the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center alongside FarmSTAND, a legal advocacy organization focused on issues of corporate agriculture. …

However, this case, first filed in 2021 in the Court of Claims, has become about more than just immigrant rights, argued lawyer David Muraskin, managing director for litigation at FarmSTAND. The Court of Appeals, overturning a decision from the Court of Claims, ruled in May 2024 that the argument was not timely — thus making Whitmer subject to immunity — because the claim was filed more than one year after the governor’s policy went into effect.

“That would mean that when the governor has a policy of any unconstitutional conduct, including this one, the fact that she got away with it for a year would keep anyone from ever going to court,” Muraskin said.

See full story by Katherine Dailey at Michigan Advance and Ionesco County News Herald.