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They Got Hurt at Work. Then They Got Deported.
They Got Hurt at Work. Then They Got Deported.
How insurance companies use a Florida law to get undocumented immigrants arrested and deported when they get injured on the job — and what it means in Trump’s America.
by Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, Aug. 16, 2017, 5 a.m.
This story was co-published with NPR.
Leer en español.
At age 31, Nixon Arias cut a profile similar to many unauthorized immigrants in the United States. A native of Honduras, he’d been in the country for more than a decade and had worked off and on for a landscaping company for nine years. The money he earned went to building a future for his family in Pensacola, Florida. His Facebook page was filled with photos of fishing and other moments with his three boys, ages 3, 7 and 8. ... But in November 2013, that life began to unravel.
The previous year, Arias had been mowing the median of Highway 59 just over the Alabama line when his riding lawnmower hit a hole, throwing him into the air. He slammed back in his seat, landing hard on his lower back. ... Arias received pain medication, physical therapy and steroid injections through his employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. But the pain in his back made even walking or sitting a struggle. So his doctor recommended an expensive surgery to implant a device that sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord to relieve chronic pain. Six days after that appointment, the insurance company suddenly discovered that Arias had been using a deceased man’s Social Security number and rejected not only the surgery, but all of his past and future care.
Desperate, Arias hired an attorney to help him pursue the injury benefits that Florida law says all employees, including unauthorized immigrants, are entitled to receive. Then one morning after he dropped two of his boys off at school, Arias was pulled over and arrested, while his toddler watched from his car seat.
Arias was charged with using a false Social Security number to get a job and to file for workers’ comp. The state insurance fraud unit had been tipped off by a private investigator hired by his employer’s insurance company. ... With his back still in pain from three herniated or damaged discs, Arias spent a year and a half in jail and immigration detention before he was deported.
....
Research contributed by Meg Anderson and Graham Bishai of NPR and Sarah Betancourt of ProPublica. Translation services contributed by Donatella Ungredda.
Do you have information about how immigrant workers are being treated in the age of Trump? Contact Michael at michael.grabell@propublica.org.
Like this story? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get more of our best work.
Michael Grabell covers economic and labor issues for ProPublica and has previously reported on temp agencies, the stimulus, and the TSA.
https://twitter.com/MichaelGrabell
How insurance companies use a Florida law to get undocumented immigrants arrested and deported when they get injured on the job — and what it means in Trump’s America.
by Michael Grabell, ProPublica, and Howard Berkes, NPR, Aug. 16, 2017, 5 a.m.
This story was co-published with NPR.
Leer en español.
At age 31, Nixon Arias cut a profile similar to many unauthorized immigrants in the United States. A native of Honduras, he’d been in the country for more than a decade and had worked off and on for a landscaping company for nine years. The money he earned went to building a future for his family in Pensacola, Florida. His Facebook page was filled with photos of fishing and other moments with his three boys, ages 3, 7 and 8. ... But in November 2013, that life began to unravel.
The previous year, Arias had been mowing the median of Highway 59 just over the Alabama line when his riding lawnmower hit a hole, throwing him into the air. He slammed back in his seat, landing hard on his lower back. ... Arias received pain medication, physical therapy and steroid injections through his employer’s workers’ compensation insurance. But the pain in his back made even walking or sitting a struggle. So his doctor recommended an expensive surgery to implant a device that sends electrical pulses to the spinal cord to relieve chronic pain. Six days after that appointment, the insurance company suddenly discovered that Arias had been using a deceased man’s Social Security number and rejected not only the surgery, but all of his past and future care.
Desperate, Arias hired an attorney to help him pursue the injury benefits that Florida law says all employees, including unauthorized immigrants, are entitled to receive. Then one morning after he dropped two of his boys off at school, Arias was pulled over and arrested, while his toddler watched from his car seat.
Arias was charged with using a false Social Security number to get a job and to file for workers’ comp. The state insurance fraud unit had been tipped off by a private investigator hired by his employer’s insurance company. ... With his back still in pain from three herniated or damaged discs, Arias spent a year and a half in jail and immigration detention before he was deported.
....
Research contributed by Meg Anderson and Graham Bishai of NPR and Sarah Betancourt of ProPublica. Translation services contributed by Donatella Ungredda.
Do you have information about how immigrant workers are being treated in the age of Trump? Contact Michael at michael.grabell@propublica.org.
Like this story? Sign up for our daily newsletter to get more of our best work.
Michael Grabell covers economic and labor issues for ProPublica and has previously reported on temp agencies, the stimulus, and the TSA.
https://twitter.com/MichaelGrabell
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