“…The court held that “aliens, authorized to work or not, may recover unpaid and underpaid wages†under rights granted by the Fair Labor 
Standards Act…The appellate judges said that “numerous district courts, including the one in this case, and the secretary of labor all agree: Employers who unlawfully hire unauthorized aliens must otherwise comply with federal employment laws…â€
In a case that pit U.S. labor law against immigration law, a panel of federal appellate judges has ruled that six undocumented workers are owed about $450,000 in back pay and penalties for uncompensated work at a Kansas City restaurant — the popular Jerusalem Cafe in Westport. The 8th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said this week that federal labor law trumped federal immigration law in this instance.
The court ruled that a former owner and former manager of Jerusalem Cafe could not argue that the workers were in the United States illegally and therefore lacked standing to sue for unpaid wages.
That argument, the appellate panel said, is akin to saying that Al Capone couldn’t have been prosecuted for tax evasion because his earnings were illegally made. (The infamous mobster was jailed on such charges.)
The lawsuit said five of the six workers had each worked 77 hours a week at the restaurant. It said the workers were known to lack official work authorizations and were paid in cash on a weekly basis.
The case attracted national attention, prompting the U.S. secretary of labor to file a brief on behalf of six workers who were employed at the restaurant in the period spanning 2007 to 2010.
Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/08/01/4383369/court-says-undocumented-workers.html#storylink=cpy
