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Jim Siegel The Columbus Dispatch @phrontpage

A House Republican proposal to block undocumented workers who get hurt on the job from accessing workers compensation benefits sparked a passionate Ohio House debate Wednesday.

Calling it a dangerous, illogical provision, said Rep. Dan Ramos, D-Lorain, said the proposal, part of the Bureau of Workers Compensation budget, will punish injured workers and actually encourage the hiring of undocumented workers by shielding employers from liability for an injury.

Why would we want to actively make it cheaper and easier to hire undocumented workers and then actively make it easier for those people to have unsafe working conditions? said Ramos, the longest-serving Latino state officeholder in Ohio history.

If an unscrupulous employer wants to hire undocumented people, which they shouldnt do, the state of Ohio is telling them through this bill were going to assume you did nothing wrong. And if your undocumented worker hurts themselves, thats their fault.

Despite Democratic objections, the provision remained in the budget bill as it passed the House, 65-29. But its future appears murky in the Senate, where President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, said he hasnt studied the exact language, but he didnt sound like a fan.

Thats a proposal thats been around for a number of years and, as far as Im aware, its never passed the Senate, he said.

Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, said the House is just requiring the bureau to verify an injured workers legal status, the same as is required for unemployment compensation or food stamps.

Seitz, citing statistics from State Legislatures Magazine, said 8 million undocumented immigrants were in the workforce in 2014, especially in construction and farming.

Those are two of the occupations that have a relatively high claims experience under the workers comp system, Seitz said. Every dollar paid in compensation to people here illegally is a dollar that legitimate employers have to pay into the BWC system to pay those benefits, or a dollar that is unavailable for legitimate, hard-working, legal aliens and legal workers.

Seitz noted that an undocumented worker could still sue the employer for medical costs and recovery if he or she can prove the employer knew the worker was not legal.

Will there be such lawsuits or not? I dont know, Seitz said. What I hope is illegal aliens will get the message we dont want to have them in our workforce sucking on our workers comp system.

The idea that undocumented immigrants are going to utilize the court system to prove that they didnt deceive their employer about their illegal status is a fantasy, Democrats have argued.

Thats difficult to do from a detention center, very difficult to do from another country, Ramos said.

Workers compensation is an insurance program, which is a different question from whether someone is documented or not, Obhof said.

The more important question is, if you have employers who are knowingly employing undocumented workers, shouldnt there be consequences there too? Obhof said. Whats the problem were trying to solve here?

When that question was relayed to Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, R-Clarksville, he responded, We dont supply these kind of benefits to folks that are undocumented aliens in the state.

Rejecting the change means having businesses pay excess premiums to cover people who shouldnt be here in the first place, Seitz said.

But, Ramos argued, proposals like this have a racial component that makes Latinos feel like they cant turn to authorities for help.

I can tell you this will harm the Latinos in this state regardless of immigration status, Ramos said.

I represent Bob and Betty Buckeye, he said, invoking a common phrase around the Statehouse, and I represent Roberto and Isabella Buckeye too.

jsiegel@dispatch.com

@phrontpage

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Ohio rep doesn't want "illegal aliens...sucking on our workers' comp system" - The Columbus Dispatch

Despite those challenges, Vice President Mike Pence has been nearly invisible for the last 48 hours or so -- even as the Trump Administration has been buffeted by a slew of negative stories that have occasioned a special counsel to be named to oversee the ongoing Russia probe.

On Wednesday, Pence was nowhere to be seen for most of the day. His staff said that he was working on a series of speeches; Pence is set to deliver the commencement address at Notre Dame on Sunday. Pence's one public event was to honor Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders late in the day.

Still, Pence has spoken nary a word about the blockbuster news that Trump divulged classified information in an Oval Office meeting with two top Russian officials or the bombshell that Trump reportedly asked then FBI Director James Comey to leave off an investigation into the Russia ties of former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Pence has also said nothing publicly about the fact that Trump directly contradicted his version of events surrounding Comey's firing 9 days ago.

"The vice president stands by his comments in March upon first hearing the news regarding General Flynn's ties to Turkey and fully supports the President's decision to ask for General Flynn's resignation," an unnamed Pence aide told CNN.

The issue with that statement, of course, is that Pence was the head of the transition team. In that capacity, it seems somewhat hard to believe that Flynn's warning to White House counsel Don McGahn that he was under investigation never made it to Pence's ears.

The last 48 hours, however, have highlighted Pence's political problem: He is serving under a deeply unpredictable president who he will likely be latched to -- in the public's mind -- no matter what happens over these next four or eight years. Pence has, to date, benefited politically from his willingness to embrace the Trump enigma. (He is vice president, after all.) But Trump is a double-edged sword and Pence has been feeling the sharp end of it since Monday.

Correction: An earlier version mischaracterized Pence's tweet about lunch with the Turkish president.

Read more from the original source:
Mike Pence's disappearing act - CNN

Some students at the Catholic university plan to walk out of the speech as part of a protest against Pence and his policies, which they say target marginalized people on the basis of their religion, skin color or sexual orientation, according to the student activist group We Stand For.

Luis Miranda, a co-organizer of the walkout, said Pence, as Indiana governor and as vice president, targeted vulnerable people with his policies. Catholic values promote standing up for the poor and marginalized, so he plans to stand up on Sunday, literally.

Miranda said some of his family members are undocumented immigrants and have felt under siege by the Trump administration's crackdown on immigration.

"They are going to be in the audience in one of the most important moments of my life with someone targeting them for who they are," he said.

As of Thursday afternoon, about 75 people had signed up to participate in the walkout.

"This is not just about the numbers, but about standing up for truth," Miranda said. "We feel that there is power in truth and hopefully there will be power in numbers that come stand up with us."

The university is not particularly worried about the protest.

Paul Browne, a spokesperson for Notre Dame, said walkout organizers reached out to police and administrators ahead of time to plan the quiet proceedings.

"We're not concerned," Browne said. "We think they will be respectful in the way they express their differences with the administration."

Browne said officials were more concerned with the potential for thunderstorms on Sunday, which could force them to move the commencement from the spacious outdoor football stadium to a smaller arena.

Pence will become the first vice president to deliver a commencement speech at Notre Dame when he receives an honorary degree on Sunday, according to the university.

Six presidents from both sides of the aisle have given commencement speeches at Notre Dame, including Barack Obama in 2009 and George W. Bush in 2001.

Pence received his bachelor's degree from Indiana's Hanover College and attended Indiana University School of Law.

Excerpt from:
Notre Dame students plan walkout during Mike Pence speech - CNN

The Daily Banter

Mike Pence Repeatedly Lied About Trump Campaign's Undisclosed Contacts With Russia The Daily Banter Reuters notes that after Pence's comments, campaign and White House officials confirmed four meetings between Trump advisors and ambassador Kislyak. No one from either the Trump administration or the Russian government has been willing to comment ... Big TroubleTPM (blog) Exclusive: Trump campaign had at least 18 undisclosed contacts with Russians: sourcesReuters Trump team knew Mike Flynn was a huge problem. They hired him anywayCNN all 57 news articles »

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Mike Pence Repeatedly Lied About Trump Campaign's Undisclosed Contacts With Russia - The Daily Banter

Lieutenant General Michael Flynn (ret.), National Security Advisor Designate speaks during a conference on the transition of the US Presidency from Barack Obama to Donald Trump at the US Institute Of Peace in Washington DC, January 10, 2017 (AFP Photo/CHRIS KLEPONIS)

A Morning Joe panel hinted that Mike Flynn was behind the revelation of several bombshell reports Wednesday that showed the transition team was aware of his foreign contacts and hired him anyway as national security adviser.

Once named to that position, Flynn reportedly killed a planned military action against ISIS at the behest of Turkey and discussed with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak setting up a back-channel network for President Donald Trump to communicate with Vladimir Putin.

Host Joe Scarborough said Vice President Mike Pence, who had been head of the transition team, should have been aware of Flynns problems and certainly knew the president had decided to fire the FBI director for probing his ties to Russia.

Karen Tumulty, a Washington Post political correspondent, also pointed out Pence had been present in the Oval Office just before Trump asked James Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn.

This is a bad story for Pence, either way, said John Heilemann, managing editor of Bloomberg Politics and MSNBC political analyst. Either he knew and is lying or he did not know and was wildly incompetent. Either way, not a great story for him. By the way, it seems to me the import of this story is that Michael Flynns lawyer came out a couple of months ago and said that Mike Flynn had a story to tell hes now starting to tell that story.

Heilemann suggested that Flynn was leaking the reports in hopes of getting the immunity he had sought.

If this is the thing that hes leaking, and there are other things that hes still holding to offer in exchange for immunity, that means this isnt even the worst of it that means hes got more things to say, Heilemann added.

Sam Stein, the senior politics editor for Huffington Post, said the Trump transition team had ignored a series of obvious red flags to name Flynn national security adviser, and both Scarborough and co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed thats because the president felt comfortable around him.

I can tell you first-hand, everybody on that transition team spoke of Michael Flynn as if he were Dwight Eisenhower on June 6, 1944, Scarborough said. He was the greatest guy, he was a calming influence that was the one selection that Donald Trump and Jared Kushner would never be moved off of.

Brzezinksi said the transition team was warned against Flynn, but they ignored those warnings and placed him in charge of national security.

Scores of people saying, Mr. President, do not appoint this man,' Scarborough said. Its the most important position, hes wildly unstable, it would be a terrible mistake. He and Jared Kushner heard that repeatedly every day and didnt give a damn.

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Morning Joe panel hints Flynn turned on Pence: 'He had a story to tell he's now starting to tell that story' - Raw Story