Victims of bridge collapse taken for granted

Every victim of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore on Tuesday was an immigrant working to fill potholes before dawn, and that is a heartbreaking reminder of the lack of humanity in our nation’s immigration debate.

When the massive cargo ship experienced a power blackout and crashed into the bridge, six road maintenance construction workers, all native to Latin America, were lost in the Patapsco River and presumed dead. Some may never be recovered.

They were immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. On Wednesday, authorities recovered the bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md.

Maritza Guzman de Villatoro told the Washington Post that a familiar pit formed in her stomach when her panicked daughter told her of the bridge collapse. A year ago, a speeding car killed her husband, brother-in-law and four others on

the same Baltimore highway, just 20 miles from the bridge.

One of the victims, Miguel Luna, was from the same area in El Salvador as Villatoro and her husband.

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

That immigrants take the jobs Americans don’t want has become a cliché. But it’s true that they do the hardest work, get paid the least and face the most danger. Yet the divisive rhetoric centered on keeping

immigrants out of the United States doesn’t acknowledge their workforce contributions, and it leaves no space for conversations about the risks they take and the protections all workers deserve.

Foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers made up 8.2 % of the American workforce in 2021, and yet they accounted for 14% of workplace deaths, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. These deaths have increased — from 512 in 2011 to 727 in 2021, a record.

The construction trades have the highest number of foreignborn Hispanic or Latino worker

deaths, with 228 fatal injuries in 2021. This occupation accounted for nearly one-third of all fatalities among foreignborn Hispanic or Latino workers. Falls, slips and trips were the most frequent fatal workplace accidents.

Overall, Texas in 2021 had a total of 533 fatal work injuries, including that of 134 foreignborn Hispanics or Latinos. Our state’s construction industry also accounted for the most foreign-born Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities. Of those foreign-born Hispanic or Latino worker fatalities in Texas, 55 were construction workers.

These numbers represent real people — not invaders. They were breadwinners and dreamers. They were husbands, fathers and sons.

Now, they’re gone. During Holy Week, the families of the workers on the Francis Scott Key Bridge prayed for a miracle that wouldn’t happen.

The Baltimore Banner interviewed Jesus Campos, an employee of contractor Brawner Builders. Campos had worked the overnight shift at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. He said the missing men from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico lived in Dundalk and Highlandtown. They were in their 30s and 40s, with spouses and children.

They all came to the city for a better life, Campos said. Not necessarily for themselves, but a better life for the loved ones they left behind in their home countries.

“They are all hardworking, humble men,” he said.

Many Americans take for granted these humble victims, dutifully repairing potholes on the Baltimore bridge when they were killed. Many Americans take for granted the immigrants who, like these victims, do similar, essential, hard work. When it’s time to build a new bridge, immigrants will build it. Just as they will later fill its potholes. They are also Americans.

Kaitlin Newman/Associated Press The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse killed six workers, all immigrants. They died doing difficult, dangerous work while the rest of the nation slept.