This from Alabama:

Alabama judge rules illegal immigrant due workers comp for life Tuscaloosa News 22 November 2005 By JAY REEVES Associated Press

”Omar Santos-Cruz came to the United States illegally from Mexico and went to work building houses in one of Alabama’s fanciest neighborhoods before he was seriously injured in a fall last year at age 17.”

“A court has now ruled that Santos-Cruz is due workers compensation benefits and medical care for life despite being in the country illegally - a possible legal precedent and certainly a sign of things to come for builders who have come to rely on immigrant laborers in a booming housing market.”

Halfway through reading this report I found myself thinking about how life -and justice have taken a Twilight Zone - like turn for the bizarre…again.

Then I finished the piece and grinned at the possibilities.

Alabama has only about ten percent of the illegal alien population as does my home state of Georgia.

Here, homes are popping up like mushrooms after a rain and a very large part of the workers are illegal aliens…from Mexico.

While I smell a MALDEF connection in this lawsuit, I find the idea of the contractor, Henry W. Lambert Construction Inc. being held responsible for the medical bills of this illegal colonist and his income - for life – to be an interesting turn of events.

As a matter of fact, it made my day.

Even if the Home Builders Association of Alabama self-insurance fund is paying the expense’s.

With ten times as many illegals here, how long before a cottage industry of suing any… and hopefully all…criminal employers here in Georgia? For that matter, is that the sound of lawyers on conference calls all over George W. Bush’s New America that I hear?

Frederick L. Fohrell, an attorney for the home builders, said the case highlighted the “tremendous challenges” that lie ahead as the law catches up with the wave of immigrants who have moved into Alabama.

Maybe this guy hasn’t heard…Bush is trying to negate the law. Again.

Below, I submit the understatement of the week…

“I expect the question may come up again,” said Fohrell, of Huntsville.

Uhh, yeah.

Santos-Cruz, who doesn’t speak English, fell through a window while working with his brother on a Lambert job site on March 10, 2004, court files show. He suffered a severe head injury that left him comatose for a time, and he remains partially paralyzed.

Even with the new, and one must assume un-expected, expense of actually having to pay benefits to an illegal alien, a spokesman for the Home Builders Association, W. Russell Davis, doesn’t miss the chance to tell us that it is still more profitable for his industry to continue to hire illegal Third World labor than those bothersome and high-priced Americans who would expect a living wage.

“Hispanics provide essential skills to Alabama’s home building industry, which couldn’t keep up with demand without them.”

“We’re lucky to have them here. If we didn’t, with the volume of homes that are being built, we couldn’t keep up with the demand because we wouldn’t have enough people for the skilled trades.”

Wouldn’t legislation that would make those who hire illegal labor personally responsible for all medical expenses of those who make it past our un-secured borders would be fun to watch these guys fight?

What Karl Rove missed in Political Science class:

“Despite individual political achievements, Mexican Americans as a group are still not strong participants in politics. Rates of naturalization, registration , and voting are all low among Mexican-Americans.
…

“When Mexican-Americans do vote, they vote overwhelmingly Democratic. In 1960, for example, John F. Kennedy won 85 percent of the Mexican-American vote. Lyndon Johnson won 90 percent in 1964, and Hubert Humphrey 87 percent in 1968. The lack of diversity in their voting makes it unnecessary for one party, and futile for the other, to exert itself to get the Mexican vote.[Ethnic America (1981) By Thomas Sowell, pp. 267-268]

Here’s a killer cranberry sauce recipe…easy too. Take a package of Ocean Spray whole cranberries, mix in about one cup of sugar and some orange zest. Put in 8″ by 8″ or similar sized pan, cover and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes. The minute you take it out of the oven, pour over about 1/4 cup of bourbon (or rum, brandy) and mix well. The alcohol burns off so no worries for non-drinkers. But what is left is a smoky, rich tasting sauce that everyone will love.

And try this addition to the same recipe: 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon and pinch of freshly ground nutmeg. It is really good…people will talk about the cranberry sauce long after the turkey is gone and forgotten.

Last Friday, a man in North Carolina was killed by a drunk driver.

(The MSM has ignored this story for reasons which will be obvious in a moment but the local story can be found here.)

We read about these horrible accidents all too often however, this case is uniquely bad for a variety of reasons:

1. The victim was Minn Soon Chang—an 18 year-old freshman at the University of North Carolina

2. The drunk driver had at least 2 previous arrests for drunk driving

3. The drunk driver is an illegal alien from Mexico

Hold on—it gets worse…far worse: He has also been deported 17 times…yes, 17.

Jorge Humberto Hernandez-Soto has been charged with 2nd Degree Murder and if convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.

Gee…that’s great—expensive but great…entirely avoidable but great.

In North Carolina , the average cost of incarceration for a prison inmate is $22,787 per year so this is what I’m thinking:

Should he serve 20 years, the cost to taxpayers will be roughly half a million dollars.

Yeah…you know that whole cost of illegal immigration debate? The one about the exorbitant cost of illegal immigration being off-set by the contributions they make?

In spite of evidence to the contrary, let us suppose that basic math was used to draw that conclusion. Next, let’s exclude from the equation all the incarceration expenses incurred by illegal aliens.

Yeah…we’re still in the red but even so, that is nothing—nothing—compared to the price the Chang family has paid.

The real crime is that this tragedy could have been avoided by simply enforcing our immigration laws and guarding our borders.

If only we could impose twenty years in prison for that infraction!