Illegal domestic workers and their legal options Essay

Illegal domestic workers and their legal options - Essay Example Undocumented workers and their plight. Undocumented workers are increasingly subjected to a variety of injustices. Included in this is the fact that the undocumented worker pays into social security and medicare, yet does not receive the benefits from these programs. According to Porter (2005), undocumented workers pay a variety of payroll taxes which contribute to the overall solvency of both the medicare and the social security benefits, but, since they are undocumented, they are not entitled to collect these benefits. One of the reasons why they contribute, yet cannot collect, is that they get a fake social security number, therefore the employer must withhold payroll taxes for these workers. However, since they have a fake social security number, they cannot collect these benefits. Moreover, Porter (2005) states that, even if these workers were aware of what their employers withhold from them, many of them are not aware of the reasons why these wages are withheld. ... This means that an illegal alien with the same education, work experience and language proficiency as a documented worker will make 22% less than that documented worker, if the worker is a male, and 36% less if the worker is a female. Moreover, Mehta (2002) found that the undocumented workers in his study are more liable to work in unsafe conditions than the documented workers in his study, and that the undocumented workers were less likely to have health insurance. Moreover, these workers also do not have access to medicare or medicaid, therefore they do not, by and large, have access to health care at all. As far as unsafe conditions go, undocumented workers are more likely to report that they operate machinery without proper training. They are also more likely, according to Mehta (2002), to report that they are working in unsanitary conditions, therefore they are more likely to get sick because they are working in these conditions. Mehta (2002) also states that undocumented worker s are more likely to slip and fall on the job. And, if these undocumented workers do get hurt on the job, they are less likely to obtain worker’s compensation benefits, and, even if they apply for worker’s compensation benefits, they are less likely, than documented workers, to actually obtain these benefits. Lee (2010) states that illegal immigrants are also the target of discriminatory laws. He cites federal laws which state that illegal immigrants cannot access federal benefits, and state laws which states that illegal immigrants cannot access public schooling, either secondary, elementary or post-secondary. There was even a law in Texas, pending, which states that the children of undocumented individuals in