Jie

Liang Tai Knitwear Co., Ltd. (Manufacturer) and Hong Yuan Industrial Co., Ltd. (Marketer) (collectively defendants) are in the garment business here in Los Angeles. Lou Yu Jie (Wife) and Fu E. Min (Husband) (collectively plaintiffs) both worked for defendants in the garment business. After defendants laid off plaintiffs, plaintiffs sued, alleging their terminations were retaliatory in nature: plaintiffs had reported defendants to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and the INS had raided defendants’ business and arrested approximately 40 percent of defendants” labor force as undocumented, and hence illegal, workers. The jury found in favor of plaintiffs, and defendants now appeal. We affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

Plaintiffs had immigrated to the United States from China in 1992. They were not familiar with immigration laws, and worked illegally themselves until they learned about the immigration and work permit process. They then obtained the necessary work permits. Before this happened, defendants had obtained work documents for plaintiffs, which plaintiffs subsequently discovered were not legal.

While working for defendants, plaintiffs…