If you live in a state where there is a high population of illegal aliens, chances are you or someone you know will be involved in a car crash with an illegal alien at some point in time. So, what are your rights and what rights do they have?

First, an illegal alien is entitled to every right that a legal citizen has. Our laws are written to protect the victim regardless of their legal status. This means if a legal citizen hits an illegal alien and hurts them, the illegal alien can make an insurance claim against the person that hurt them. The illegal alien can also file a lawsuit and use our court system to be fully compensated for their injuries.

Second, the legal citizen can file an insurance claim or lawsuit against an illegal alien if they are the ones negligent for the accident and hurt the legal citizen. Illegal aliens can and are expected to carry auto insurance just as a legal citizen is expected to carry auto insurance.

Finally, injury claims fall under state law where the accident happened. This means if you are visiting another state other than your home state, the laws surrounding the accident fall under the state you are visiting. Because you are visiting, you have access to the court system from that state even though you don’t have citizenship of that state.

The same applies to tourists. Imagine how silly it would be to say a tourist visiting our country could not make an injury claim if they were hurt by someone else’s negligence just because they were visiting and were not an actual citizen of that state or country. So why would it be any different for an illegal alien? Just imagine they are “prolonged tourists”.

So the concern shouldn’t be the legal status of an individual, the bigger concern should be, do they have enough insurance? Since its fair to say that most illegal aliens make very little money, they probably don’t have very good insurance policies, if they can afford insurance at all. That is why you need to be diligent in protecting yourself when purchasing your own auto insurance policy.