The death of Latin American workers who were working on a Baltimore bridge when it collapsed, hit by a container ship, served as a reminder of the crucial role of immigrant workers in the United States.
It also contrasts with the anti-immigration speeches of political leaders like Donald Trump, in the middle of an election year.
“Immigrants come for jobs that Americans don’t want to do,” says Luis Vega, an activist and former construction worker. “Who wants to wash hotel rooms? Who wants to work under the sun? And in the fields?
A team of eight workers, all Latin American immigrants from Mexico, Honduras, Salvador and Guatemala, were working at night repairing the roadway of the Francis Scott Key Bridge when it collapsed.
Two of them survived, and the bodies of two of the other six workers missing and thought dead have been found.
“We immigrants do the work,” White House adviser Tom Perez said in an interview Thursday. “And that’s what we were doing a few nights ago. The six people who died and the two who survived, that’s America, immigrants fixing potholes.”
The news shocked the Hispanic community. At the same time, political figures such as Donald Trump, campaigning against Democrat Joe Biden for the November presidential election, are advocating anti-immigrant policies, regularly calling them “criminals” who should be deported.
“It’s sad, because the ex-president doesn’t see the harm he’s doing by spreading this poison,” said Mr. Vega, who was the face of a pro-immigration campaign in Arizona in 2010 with support celebrities like the singer Shakira.
In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, Donald Trump “accused undocumented immigrants of being criminals, drug traffickers, rapists, everything,” adds Luis Vega.
But “no one wanted to work in person, close to other people. So who was doing the work? Who washed in hospitals? Harvested something to eat? The immigrants, who risked their lives.”
High risk
As the country’s essential workforce, immigrants are also very exposed to the risk of exploitation. They work long days in precarious conditions, for low wages, explains Javier Galindo, a 48-year-old entrepreneur from Arizona (southwest).
In his state, where the minimum wage is $14.35 an hour, workers receive between $80 and $100 a day. “And you know what time you start, but not what time you finish,” says Mr. Galindo, who started working at 14 as a laborer and then founded his company.
“On the roofs, you will never see a white person, that was meant for me,” he explains. “In general these are tasks done by immigrants who come from Mexico and who always do risky work.”
In 20 years, only one white person came to his door and he employed her as his driver. “He gave up,” he adds with a laugh.
The constant need for money, Mr. Vega emphasizes, forces immigrants to accept complicated jobs, in risky sectors and conditions that can be fatal, such as high temperatures.
According to official data, Latin American immigrants made up 8.2% of the U.S. workforce in 2021, but accounted for 14% of workplace deaths.
Fatal accidents also increased by 42% between 2011 and 2021, from 512 to 727. Official statistics are not necessarily complete.
Mr Galindo argues that in his region the construction sector is completely dependent on immigrants, with undocumented immigrants playing a key role.
“There is a lot of shortage of labor,” explains Mr. Galindo, whose activity was strongly affected by the closure of borders during the Covid-19 pandemic, and who defends a reform of the migration system and the legalization of workers. illegal immigrant.
A feeling shared in the sector.
“If we only had to hire people with papers, we would actually be in a very bad situation,” said another entrepreneur from Arizona, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Unfortunately, we could not build in this city without these undocumented workers
