A tragedy shook the city of Baltimore, Maryland, when at 1:30 a.m. on March 26th, a cargo ship allegedly lost control and crashed into the busy Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed. Police managed to stop traffic just minutes before the incident; however, a group of eight workers, all Latino immigrants, were at that early morning hour filling potholes at the site.
Only two of them could be rescued alive. This is the other side of the coin behind the immigration issue. The country depends on migrant labor, although politicians demonize them, and little is done in practice to protect them.
Hate speech vs economic reality
Whether due to lack of creativity, resources, or simple prejudice, Donald Trump's presidential campaign is repeating the same execrable message used in 2015-2016, portraying undocumented immigrants as the external enemy, as criminals roaming the streets.
Last December, Trump claimed that newly arrived immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a comment that echoes the speech of other totalitarian figures throughout history. The reprehensible distinction between “pure blood” and “contaminating” blood. But beyond the hate speech for electoral purposes, the United States depends on immigrant labor.
A place can thrive economically and socially over time if it has (among other things) healthy demographic growth, that is, if it has enough people joining the workforce. Something the country desperately needs.
Between 2010 and 2020, the United States experienced the slowest demographic growth of any decade since 1930. In recent years, fewer children have been born, and despite what conservative politicians say, immigration levels have also decreased. What happens when the population is aging or dying, and there are not enough people joining the workforce? An unimaginable crisis.
Latino workers, a majority of the workforce
Close to 130,000 immigrants work in the construction industry in the Baltimore and Washington DC regions, representing 39% of the workforce, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. Latinos are the fastest-growing demographic group in the region, with a 77% increase in Baltimore in the last decade, according to the Census.
The immigrant workers at the Francis Scott Key Bridge were already doing risky work, in the middle of the night and surrounded by vehicles traveling at high speeds. No one warned them of the danger when the structure collapsed.
Essential immigrant workers, but unprotected and vilified
This situation is not exclusive to Baltimore, but to the entire country. In North Carolina, one in three construction workers is Latino, but they represent over 40% of those who die on the job, according to federal data. Just as what happened in January 2023 when three Latino immigrants died when a scaffold collapsed while they were working in downtown Charlotte.
These tragedies are a painful reminder that immigrant labor sustains the national economy by taking on essential, dangerous, poorly paid jobs, and in many cases, without guarantees of their safety, jobs that the average American does not want to take on, but someone has to do.
It is imperative that we reject the electoral narrative that demonizes immigrants. They are not the enemy; they are a vulnerable community that, for the most part, only seeks a better future for their families, and in the process, helps sustain our economy.