Judge rejects bias claims by Filipino nurses

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/nassau/ny-lisent1412965788jul13,0,3029689.story

A federal judge has dismissed the discrimination claims of more than two dozen Filipino nurses whose resignation from SentosaCare nursing homes on Long Island and in New York City three years ago sparked an international controversy.
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The 26 nurses quit their jobs in April 2006 over working conditions. They then complained to the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-related Unfair Employment Practices that Woodmere-based SentosaCare duped them into emigrating by lying about which facilities they would work for.The nurses complained that SentosaCare retaliated by filing lawsuits, lodging complaints to the nursing disciplinary board and enlisting the help of Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, whose office secured a grand jury indictment of 10 nurses who resigned from Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center in Smithtown. A state appellate court halted that prosecution in January, ruling it unconstitutional.
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In two separate June 30 rulings, Administrative Law Judge Ellen K. Thomas of the Office of the Chief Administrative Hearing Officer in Falls Church, Va., which decides immigrant employment cases, rejected the nurses' claims, saying the resignations were not protected by federal immigration employment law.

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The Justice Department also rejected the nurses' claims in 2007.
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"The judge factually rebutted every contention made by the nurses," said Elizabeth Hack, a Washington, D.C., attorney for SentosaCare.
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Dennis Feliciano, the nurses' immigration attorney, said he was disappointed Thomas ruled without a hearing. He said he was considering an appeal to the federal court system.
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The nurses' complaints ignited a controversy in the Philippines. They filed complaints there which were also dismissed, but Filipino politicians blamed Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) for intervening on behalf of Sentosa-Care, a big political donor. Schumer has said he was only helping a constituent.