In the late 1990s, as more such cases surfaced, federal agencies including the National Labor Relations Board and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission adopted a policy that seemed to resolve the dilemma: Illegal immigrant workers would not be reinstated but would receive back pay from the time they were fired to the point at which employers learned of the employees' illegal status. The case that reached the Supreme Court was unusual because the employer did not learn of the worker's illegal status until years into the dispute. It was 1989 when the worker, known as Jose Castro, was fired from his job at Hoffman Plastic Compounds Inc. After years of hearings and appeals, Castro admitted he used false documents to obtain his job. By then, the wages and penalties amounted to $67,000. "Allowing the Board to award back pay to illegal aliens would unduly trench upon explicit statutory prohibitions critical to federal immigration policy," wrote Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. "It would encourage the successful evasion of apprehension by immigration authorities, condone prior violations of the immigration laws, and encourage future violations." The Labor Department this week insisted that wage, hour and safety regulations would be enforced "vigorously" for all workers, regardless of immigration status. Yet the statement, issued in Washington and Mexico City, failed to address the question of what remedies undocumented workers have if they are fired for asserting those protections.    [ Continue.......... ]