5:24 p.m. ET, March 29, 2024
Immigrant advocacy group remembers workers killed in bridge collapse, including 2 who were members
From CNN’s Sarah Dewberry
Construction workers and supporters reflect during a moment of prayer at a vigil and press conference by CASA of Maryland on Friday in Baltimore.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
An immigrant advocacy group stressed the dangers construction workers face after several men died when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed this week.
CASA Executive Director Gustavo Torres called it a "somber moment" Friday in honoring the workers. He said essential workers, like the men on the bridge, perform dangerous yet critical construction industry work at significant personal risk so people can live their lives.
"These workers who make it possible to get to work … who work at night and it in the cold and throughout the pandemic — so our lives are made easier," Torres said.
The six people presumed dead
were from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
The bodies of Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes from Mexico and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera from Guatemala have been recovered, officials said earlier this week. They were filling potholes on the bridge when it was hit by a container ship on Tuesday.
The goal of the CASA is to improve "the quality of life in work-class" minority and immigrant communities, according to its website.
Two of the workers whose bodies have not yet been recovered were part of the organization — Miguel Luna and Maynor Suazo Sandoval. The
CASA said it set up a donation to help their families, as well as the other four victims who passed away in the bridge collapse.