Dorlian Castillo Cabrera. Alejandro Fuentes. Carlos Hernández. Jose Mynor Lopez. Miguel Luna. Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval. These are names you won’t hear Republican loudmouth dumbass Marjorie Taylor Greene saying. These are the names of construction workers from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador who died when the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was wrecked by a gigantic cargo ship.
As you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene is much more concerned with demonizing immigrant suspects in the deaths of young white women to win points with the Republican base. When it comes to those men, Republicans are suddenly not all that concerned with the niceties of “innocent until proven guilty.”
These six men who died in that bridge collapse are but a few of the thousands of immigrants from the so-called “Mexican countries” who do vital construction work throughout the United States. And who will continue to vital construction work throughout the United States. Ramishah Maruf and Gloria Pazmino for CNN:
Latino workers make up about a third of America’s construction industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a huge overrepresentation considering they make up just 19% of the overall American population and 17.6% of its workforce. More than two-thirds of Hispanic construction workers in America are foreign born.
[...]
..., from immediate disaster response like Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Hurricane Ian in Florida to longer-term reconstruction, Latino immigrant workers flow in to help rebuild communities. These laborers perform a variety of jobs throughout the country. They rake out heaps of debris from flooded homes, tear down moldy drywall, rebuild streets, reconstruct residences and repair faulty electrical wires — and when it’s time, they’ll likely help rebuild the Key Bridge.
The Key Bridge workers ... represent what has become the face of construction in the United States, a career that has become unpopular among many Americans. Foreign-born workers eager for jobs often perform dangerous yet crucial work, building everything from roads and bridges to houses and skyscrapers across changing city skylines.
Construction industry experts say the US needs to allow more legal immigrants to enter to fill a crucial labor gap. ... The population of skilled laborers is aging, and the construction industry says young people are pushed to prioritize college, leading to a shortage of workers. While foreign-born laborers fill a critical need in the construction industry, they often face exploitation and higher rates of death on the job.
Most of those deaths are not newsworthy.
And, quite inconveniently for Republicans, the villain in those deaths is capitalist greed. Always cutting corners for profit today, no matter what the cost tomorrow.
America needs men like Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, Alejandro Fuentes, Carlos Hernández, Jose Mynor Lopez, Miguel Luna and Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval. Maybe we should just give them blanket amnesty: any so-called “illegal” immigrant who is already doing vital work here gets amnesty. No questions, no hassle, no excuses. Just another one of my crazy ideas.