Illegal-worker court ruling yields odd paradox

Employers must deal with unions that represent the undocumented

By Michael Doyle

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — Federal law prohibits hiring illegal immigrants, but it also requires companies to bargain with unions that represent them.

That's the result of a recent court ruling that showcases the unresolved paradoxes posed by U.S. immigration law.

While Congress remains stalemated, judges keep interpreting how current immigration law works. The latest ruling, by what lawyers consider the nation's second-highest federal court, reveals how the results can appear to be confounding.

"It seems somewhat peculiar indeed . . . to order an employer to bargain with a union representing employees that the employer would be required to discharge under the Immigration Reform and Control Act," acknowledged Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Henderson nonetheless concluded that an agricultural- processing company had to bargain with a union even though most of the union's local members were in the United States illegally.

Henderson joined Judge David Tatel in the 2-1 appellate panel decision. Implications from the ruling, issued without fanfare on Friday, could spread to any state with large numbers of illegal-immigrant workers.