Our prayers continue to be with the loved ones of the six construction workers who are presumed dead after the Francis Key Scott Bridge collapse earlier this week. The missing workers were originally from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, as a team at The Baltimore Sun reports.
"My heart hurts because of what’s happening," said fellow Brawner Builders worker Jesús Campos. "We are human beings, and they are my co-workers. The situation is tough."
The tragedy underscores the vulnerability of immigrant workers in the United States, as Scott Dance and María Luisa Paúl report in The
Washington Post. Workplace deaths are disproportional for foreign-born Hispanic and Latino workers in particular and have been rising, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"We leave with so many dreams," said Maritza Guzman de Villatoro, whose husband and brother-in-law died in an incident last year at a different highway construction site. "Here, immigrants have the hardest times and do the hardest jobs, and then we’re the first to break."
Pia Orrenius, a senior economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, talked with Elizabeth Trovall of Marketplace about
immigrant workers’ importance in these industries. Without the immigrant workforce, she said, "you would see a lot of bottlenecks to growth."
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Forum Daily. I’m Dan Gordon, the Forum’s strategic communications VP, and the great Forum Daily team also includes Jillian Clark, Ally Villarreal and Clara Villatoro. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].
HAITI — More than 480 human rights organizations have sent a letter urging President Biden to pause deportations to Haiti and update Temporary Protected Status to assist more Haitians already in the U.S., reports Julia Ainsley of NBC News. "There is no excuse to send anyone to anywhere in Haiti right now," said Guerline Jozef, co-founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance. Gang violence in recent weeks has resulted in thousands of kidnappings, injuries and deaths, report Rebecca Falconer and Stef W. Kight of Axios.
SB 4 — A federal appeals court panel rejected a petition to lift the block on Texas’ SB 4 law, reports Benjamin Wermund of the Houston Chronicle. Meanwhile, hundreds of Texas National Guard soldiers were deployed to the border Tuesday afternoon, reports Tirza Ortiz of KTSM. These soldiers are specially trained to deal with civil disturbance, per a Texas Military Department spokesperson.
HUMANITY — For people of faith, SB 4 and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit against Annunciation House in El Paso are "chilling" developments, Jenifer Wellman writes in an El Paso Matters op-ed. "If our state — and our country — really care about addressing the border," Wellman writes, "we would do well to remember the humanity of migrants, along with recognizing that extreme solutions are at odds with what the
majority of Americans want."
HELP STILL WANTED — Nevada business leaders are highlighting the need for streamlined work authorization for the crucial immigrant workforce, Grace Da Rocha of the Las Vegas Sun reports. Amanda Moss of the Southern Nevada Home Builders Association said open construction jobs in Las Vegas number more than 100,000. "We have to look at solutions to bringing in immigrant labor that ... wants to swing the hammer, because those
employees are just not there," Moss said. Expanding work permit access for spouses of U.S. citizens would help.
P.S. Catholic communities are supporting migrant families through the church’s Welcome Circles program, reports Marietha Góngora V. of OSV News. Separately, as Catholics celebrate Holy Week, Meghan J. Clark reflects about lessons of hope from migrant families during Lent in U.S. Catholic.
