Bridge collapse brings stark reminder of migrant workers’ vulnerabilities

One of the victims, Miguel Luna, came from the same area in El Salvador as Villatoro and her husband, near the southeastern city of Usulutan, she said.

“We leave with so many dreams,” she said, her voice trembling. “Here, immigrants have the hardest times and do the hardest jobs, and then we’re the first to break.”

The latest deaths underscore a truth that relatives of victims in both tragedies say is too often taken for granted — that immigrants are some of the most vulnerable, least-protected workers in the United States.

While full details about the victims in the bridge collapse have not been released to the public, they are known to be natives of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Two workers were quickly rescued, but the search for others was ongoing. Authorities announced Wednesday they had recovered two bodies, those of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md.

Some 130,000 immigrants work in the construction industry in the Baltimore and Washington regions, making up 39 percent of the workforce, according to Casa, a Maryland-based Latino and immigration advocacy organization. Latin Americans are one of the fastest-growing demographics in the region, surging by 77 percent in Baltimore during the 2010s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Many who are recent immigrants face the economic hardships that come with seasonal and temporary work and the threat of immigration enforcement, all while enduring blazing heat, speeding drivers and the disdain of those who want to see a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Maynor Suazo, among the six bridge workers presumed to be dead, came to the United States illegally, said his nephew Hector Guardado — though Suazo’s employer said he was working in Baltimore legally. Suazo, Guardado said, was contributing to the economy in ways many citizens are not willing to.

“The kind of work he did is what people born in the U.S. won’t do,” Guardado said by phone from Honduras. “People like him travel there with a dream. They don’t want to break anything or take anything.”

The men were supporting families both in the Baltimore region and in their home countries, said the Rev. Ako Walker, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus, a Catholic parish in southeastern Baltimore that serves a largely Hispanic population.

“It’s important to realize that families lost their breadwinners,” Walker said.

The role of immigrants at the center of the two incidents, separated by a year and a matter of miles, has already prompted calls from Maryland leaders and immigrant groups to better protect them — even if it wasn’t clear how to accomplish that.

“There’s certain occupations where we understand there’s dangers associated with it,” Gov. Wes Moore (D) said. “For someone filling potholes, you don’t think that’s one of those professions. It’s something we have to have a more aggressive approach to.”

But federal data shows that Hispanic workers face disproportionately high fatality rates, especially in the construction industry.

While foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers made up 8.2 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2021, they accounted for 14 percent of workplace deaths, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And these deaths have been on the rise — from a reported 512 deaths in 2011 to 727 in 2021, the highest on record.

The construction industry is especially dangerous for foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers, 274 of whom died in 2021. The group accounted for 7.9 percent of the industry’s workers but 26.3 percent of deaths from falls, slips and trips in 2020.

Gustavo Torres, Casa’s executive director, said the repeated tragedies stressed the need for legislation to better protect vulnerable workers, though he did not offer specific proposals. Without action, he said, similar tragedies will keep occurring.

When asked about how immigrant laborers might be better protected, officials in the Moore administration pointed to legislation they are proposing to improve safety in highway work zones. Their bill would improve driver education, increase enforcement of work zone speed limits and raise fines for motorists who flout them.

But Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D), a former traffic engineer, acknowledged those policies would not have stopped a ship from hitting a bridge, and that, somehow, that risk would need to be addressed in future reforms, too.

“We’re going to have to make sure maritime safety is also part of that,” Miller said.

At the same time, for most workers who are undocumented, worries about deportation or detention are a lingering concern, according to a recent national survey by KFF and the Los Angeles Times.

Timothy Young, a spokesman for the Baltimore-based immigration services nonprofit Global Refuge, said sometimes those in the country without documentation do not seek medical treatment for fear of being deported.

“You can put your head down, go to work every day, follow the law and still live with that specter hanging over your head,” Young said.

The bridge workers were full-time employees at Brawner Builders, all with several years of experience there, said Jeffrey Pritzker, executive vice president at the Hunt Valley, Md.-based company. They were not members of a union, and as employees received what Pritzker called “a substantial benefit package,” declining to provide details. He said Brawner does not employ any undocumented immigrants.

The company “will ensure that the families of these deceased employees will be well taken care of,” Pritzker added. He declined to answer questions about what support or money the company would provide, but said Brawner would ask the Moore administration to memorialize the men on a plaque when the bridge is replaced.

As of Wednesday evening, a GoFundMe organized by Latino Racial Justice Circle, a nonprofit, had raised more than $72,000 for the victim’s families, surpassing its $60,000 goal.

After the I-695 crash last March, Villatoro said she felt a similar surge of support. But within weeks, she felt alone. She worries the same will happen to the bridge workers’ families.

“I hope the community does more to take care of its Hispanic community and its workers,” Villatoro said, “so that we can do the hard work, but with more protection and without being left helpless to fate.”

Last year, she said, a cousin of Miguel Luna, one of the bridge victims, expressed condolences for her husband’s death on Facebook. This week, she found herself scrolling through her Facebook friends and clicking on the woman’s profile.

“I wrote her saying I’m sorry, that I know the feeling,” Villatoro said. And that “sometimes the hardest part is waiting and waiting.”

Teo Armus contributed to this report.