5. News from the Courts:

Arizona immigration bill legal defense cost $1.5 million

The Arizona Republic reports that Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has spent $1.5 million from the state’s legal fund in defense of Senate Bill 1070, the state’s controversial immigration law.  Brewer created the Border Security and Immigration Legal Defense Fund and to date, more than 43,000 individuals from all fifty states have contributed over $3.7 million. 

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2011/02/25/20110225arizona-immigration-bill-lawsuit-cost-millions.html

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Supreme Court leaves alone state job compensation rules

Fox News reports that the Supreme Court passed on an opportunity to hear arguments relating to Louisiana job compensation rules for illegally present immigrants.  Although federal law explicitly prohibits illegally present immigrants from working in the United States, under certain state laws, those same workers can collect back pay and compensation benefits if they miss work due to an injury on the job. 

This issue has come up in various state courts with mixed results.  Judges in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Georgia have said that illegally present immigrants can receive compensation since there is no state law expressly prohibiting them from doing so.  On the other hand, judges in Virginia, Michigan, and Nevada have pointed to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, saying it prohibits illegally present immigrants from collecting benefits for work they should never have been allowed to perform.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/02/28/supreme-court-leaves-states-job-compensation-rules-illegal-workers/

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Lawsuit: company sought to hire illegally present immigrants

The Associated Press reports that a discrimination lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court on behalf of four African-American women who claim that Howard Industries gave preferential treatment to Latino applicants and workers.  In 2008, ICE agents detained nearly 600 illegally present immigrants at Howard Industries’ electrical transformer plant in Mississippi in the largest such raid in U.S. history.  The company pled guilty to conspiracy to violate immigration laws and was fined $2.5 million.  Former human resources manager Jose Humberto Gonzalez was sentenced to six months under house arrest.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=13021806

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