Alonso Guillén left his job as radio host early to help Hurricane Harvey victims on August 29, later that night he disappeared when his boat slammed against the water while he was rescuing survivors of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area.
Guillén came to the United States from Mexico with his family when he was a teenager. He never became a U.S. citizen, but he had a work permit and protection from immediate deportation as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA) that President Barack Obama established in 2012.
Last week he headed south from his home in Lufkin, Texas with a borrowed boat, insisting he wanted to help rescue flood survivors. One night his rescue boat slammed into bridge and the hit hurled him into the flood waters.
His brother, Jesús Guillén, stated that searchers found a volunteer’s body on Friday, who was with Alonso at the time of the accident. On Sunday, Guillén’s body floated to the surface.
Jesus Guillén is a 36-year-old truck driver from Lufkin, he said of his brother: “He died wanting to serve. He could have stayed home watching the news on television, but he chose to go help.”
News of Guillén’s passing spread quickly over Labor Day weekend, and his name became a rallying cry among immigrant advocates pushing Trump to preserve DACA. Guillén’s aunt, Sandra Guillén, told reporters she would like to send a message to Trump in her nephew’s name, pleading that the administration continue the protections.
Sandra said of DACA recipients: “They’re good people, they’re hard workers. They’re not coming to take anyone’s jobs away.”
Alonso’s mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillén, is a Mexican national who still lives across the Río Grande in Piedras Negras, Mexico. She initially thought she would not be able to obtain the visa necessary to enter the United States and bury her son, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection allowed her entry to the country for her son’s funeral on Monday.
The mourning mother told the press: “When we are with God, there are no borders,” before she left Mexico. “Man made borders on this earth. I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea,” she also said. “I’m asking God to give me strength.”
Trump reportedly announced on Tuesday his decision to end the DACA program. The termination order won’t be enforced for six months, according to the reports, which gives the White House or Congress time to craft an alternative to deporting the nearly 800,000 Dreamers under the program. But that also creates uncertainty for those who, like Guillén, crafted lives for themselves in the U.S.