No rights for abused, but undocumented wife

In Pomona, CA, in the hearing of Aurora Gonzalez, a Mexican woman seeking a restraining order against her husband, Superior Court Judge Finke asked Gonzalez if she was an illegal immigrant.  Gonzalez admitted to be in the country illegally, the judge responded: "I hate the immigration laws that we have, but I think the bailiff could take you to the immigration services and send you to Mexico.” Then the Judge had a creative idea: he would count to 20 and Gonzalez would disappear by the time he was finished. No trouble for her; no trouble for him. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. When I get to 20, she gets arrested and goes to Mexico," said the judge according to the court transcript. This week, in an interview with the LA Times, Judge Fink explains his intent to get Gonzalez from trouble with the INS. He also said he saw nothing more than screaming between the husband and wife, although reportedly Gonzalez had moved last month into a domestic violence shelter. The Superior Court is now reviewing the hearing.

The case decisively continues the trend post-Hoffman Plastics, where the Supreme Court denied an award of limited back pay to undocumented workers that were fired for organizing. Since then, lower courts have been expanding the logic to many more employment related and non-employment contexts.