FLSA Defendants Not Entitled to Discover Info Re Plaintiffs' Immigration Status

In Galaviz-Zamora v. Brady Farms, Inc., 230 F.R.D. 499 (W.D. Mich. Sep. 23, 2005), a case brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act and Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act, the Defendants requested various documents via discovery (social security numbers, addresses, tax returns, passports, voter registration cards, and birth certificates) that the court concluded were aimed at determining the plaintiffs' immigration status. On the plaintiffs' motion for a protective order, the court held that the defendants were not entitled to discover information regarding Plaintiffs' immigration status in a case where the workers are seeking back pay for work already performed because the information is not relevant to such claims. The Defendant had argued that Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB, 535 U.S. 137 (2002) supported the relevance of the plaintiffs' immigration status but that case involved a request for backpay to illegal aliens for work never performed, a different situation than presented by the case at bar.