It’s been 24 years since the September 11 attacks, but Rosa Duque, an undocumented ground zero worker, still vividly remembers the hours she spent trapped under a collapsed wall.
Duque was hired to work as an asbestos removal cleaner at the heavily damaged Verizon Building across from the World Trade Center site. While she was removing contaminated debris, a wall fell on her, pinning her down with her face toward the floor. Engulfed in near total darkness, Duque could barely see a thing. For six hours, she prayed for her life.
“I would pray to God for me not to fall asleep,” said Duque. “I was finally able to gather my strength and pull through the rubble and reach my arm out.”
Duque, a 59-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, was one of the approximately 2,000 undocumented workers who helped clear the debris after the attacks. Now struggling with a litany of health complications, Duque feels like undocumented workers who helped the 9/11 clean-up effort have not only been forgotten, but are now under threat as they face the possibility of deportation amid President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
But Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hopes her bill, the 9/11 Immigrant Worker Freedom Act, would change that.
Reintroduced today, the bill would provide undocumented 9/11 workers with a pathway to citizenship. The bill was first introduced by former Rep. Joseph Crowley in 2017 and reintroduced in 2021. Despite the bill being reintroduced in 2021, it made little headway in the majority Republican House.
Co-sponsored by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y) and Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y), the bill would grant permanent residence status to any immigrant worker who worked or volunteered onsite in rescue, recovery, debris cleanup, or related support services in lower Manhattan and the Staten Island landfill between 2001 and 2002. Vehicle-maintenance workers who were exposed to toxic debris from the former World Trade Center would also qualify.
Also Read: AOC Revives Citizenship Bill for 9/11 Cleanup Crew
“Twenty-four years ago, thousands of undocumented first responders and volunteers risked their lives to help our city rebuild during one of our nation’s darkest days. They are American heroes,” said Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in a statement shared with Documented. “Yet, our country has virtually abandoned them as they struggle with the health impact of asbestos exposures and other related trauma and injury. It’s past time Congress delivers a pathway to citizenship for these brave New Yorkers and shows them the gratitude they are owed.”
Luceli Gil, a 69-year-old undocumented Colombian immigrant who was also employed as a cleanup worker at ground zero, said she fears that the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies may put clean-up workers like her at risk of deportation, despite having helped the country recover after one of its most tragic days.
“This administration is bringing back all the trauma I experienced after 9/11,” she said. “I’m afraid to take the train for my medical appointment — I can be detained and deported.”
Rosa Bramble Caballero, a social worker and executive director of the Venezuelan Alliance for Community Support, says she supports the bill, believing that the undocumented 9/11 clean up workers more than earned their right to American citizenship. She has spent the last two decades providing support and advocating on behalf of the undocumented 9/11 workers.
“During that horrific day and the months after the recovery, there were immigrants who stepped up to the plate to prove their service to restore this city and this country,” she said. “So, almost 25 years later, for those who sacrificed their lives to not have a pathway to citizenship, to the contrary, criminalized, is really an insult and an offense to this community who have given so much.”
The bill’s second reintroduction also comes as 9/11 health care services have come under attack by the Trump administration. The Hispanic Federation, which conducts Spanish language outreach for the World Trade Center Health Program, was scheduled to receive $250,000 this year, with the option to receive an additional $1 million over the next four years. However, according to the Hispanic Federation, the Trump administration cut the funding without providing the organization a clear reason for the cuts.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which administers the World Trade Center Health Program, did not respond to Documented’s questions about why it cut the Hispanic Federation’s funding.
Established in 2011, the World Trade Center Health Program provides no-cost medical monitoring and treatment for certified 9/11-related health conditions to those directly affected by the attacks. Immigrant workers constituted approximately 15% of the workers evaluated by the program.
A 2023 study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine found that immigrant workers faced language barriers and fear of immigration enforcement when seeking out healthcare treatment. Culturally competent organizations like the Hispanic Federation helped overcome those barriers.
“This program also allowed us to ensure that people who are eligible for the program can access life-saving treatment and care at no cost to them,” said Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of Hispanic Federation. “The cuts to funding have left a gap for our communities and severely limited our team’s ability to continue providing these critical services.”
On Feb. 26, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the 9/11 Responder and Survivor Health Funding Correction Act of 2025, which would permanently fund the World Trade Center Health Program as well as expand funding for research and data collection on 9/11 related conditions.
“The Trump administration’s actions, including attempts to fire program staff, limit program communication, and delay work related to contract renewal for critical program components, deliberately inhibit the program’s ability to function properly and undermine care for program enrollees,” said Gillibrand in a statement to Documented.
Also Read: Undocumented Clean Up Workers Are The “Forgotten Heroes” of 9/11 Attack
Demolition worker Jose Sanchez, 62, along with his brother and wife, worked for eight months at ground zero. Sanchez, who is undocumented, says that since then, his family has suffered from chronic health conditions that he believes were caused by his demolition work.
In 2015, his brother passed away from lung cancer. His wife struggled with reproductive issues that have left her unable to have children. Sanchez himself has had lung problems, gastrointestinal issues, and PTSD. Through all of this, the World Trade Center Health Program has been his lifeline.
“The current administration is attacking our healthcare,” he said. “We as undocumented people are the focus of this administration, and we could easily lose access to healthcare.”
Already afraid of being deported back to Ecuador, the possibility of losing his access to healthcare is an added stress.
“I walk around in fear, but I still need to work,” he said. “We already have all these medical problems, now we have this additional stress and fear.”
Despite the reintroduction of Rep. Ocasio-Cortez’s bill, he says he has little hope that it will make a difference.
“We have been waiting for help, but nothing has happened. We are still waiting.”
It took Duque many years before she could go back to ground zero. After she was rescued from the rubble of the collapsed wall, her vision was permanently damaged after being hit in the head by the falling debris, leaving her color blind.
“When they pulled me out, I could barely see any more,” she said. “I could only see in black and white.”
It was not the first time she was pinned under rubble. When she was 16, a massive earthquake in Guatemala City left her trapped under her demolished home. In 2016, with the encouragement of her doctor, she finally visited the 9/11 memorial.
“My doctor suggested that I go to the memorial to deal with it,” she said. “It took me 15 years to go near the area. When I did go, my legs trembled and I began to sweat as I relived the experience.”
你知道吗？非公民办理驾照时的这个错误可能会导致选民欺诈
She says that in the years since the attacks, she has suffered from claustrophobia. She avoids crowded subways and never rides elevators. Although she has made peace with the trauma she endured in the aftermath of 9/11, she now lives with the ever-present fear that she could be deported and lose access to her health care if AOC’s bill is not passed.
“What’s happening in this country right now,” she said, “has been worse than anything else I have experienced.”
