Ground Zero's Undocumented Cleanup Crews Now Fear Deportation

NPR reports that undocumented immigrants who cleaned up ground zero after 9/11 now live in fear of ICE as enforcement operations spike in Queens.

On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, NPR reports that many of the immigrant workers who cleaned up ground zero now live in fear of deportation. As many as 6,000 undocumented workers joined the cleanup crews after September 11, 2001, exposed to toxic debris and psychological trauma. Among them is Lucelly, an undocumented worker from Colombia who was picked up on Roosevelt Avenue the day after the attacks and offered $8.50 an hour to clean the wreckage, armed only with a paper mask and rubber gloves. 'We would have lunch in the rubble, in the dust,' she told NPR. She has since battled breast cancer and respiratory disease.

The reversal is stark. 'No one ever asked to check out immigration status. Oh no, they treated us like we were real important back then. It was: Go in Lucelly. Go Lucelly. Get in there,' she told NPR. The same workers the city urgently needed in the rubble are now hiding from ICE as enforcement operations spike in Queens and nationwide. Even Rosa, a legally present Guatemalan worker who handled human remains and sifted victims' belongings under supervision, says she is hypervigilant for her undocumented friends, though she holds a certificate of honor from her Red Cross volunteer service.

The health toll is well documented. According to the World Trade Center Health Program, there have been over 57,000 cancer cases linked to toxic debris exposure, alongside myriad other conditions, and officials knew within weeks but called the air safe. NPR reports that undocumented workers are entitled to workers' compensation and assistance under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, with typical awards around $80,000, according to social worker Rosa Bramble Caballero, who runs a Queens support group for the cleanup crew. Yet she says she still meets people too scared to apply, and for those who cannot work, the awards dry out.

The fear is compounding trauma. NPR reports that the threat of ICE pickups has added to the PTSD most members of the Queens support group already suffer. Lucelly says she no longer visits her daughter in New Jersey because she is scared of immigration enforcement, calling it 'a new pain on top of an old one.' Returning to Colombia is not an option because she worries she would lose access to quality care for her health problems. Meanwhile, Fox News medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel reports that more than 9,000 people have died from 9/11-related health effects, far more than the 2,977 killed in the attacks themselves, with cancer cases jumping 75% from 2023 to 2025 according to the Northwell WTC Health Program.

A legislative fix remains stalled. The 9/11 Immigrant Worker Freedom Act, first introduced in 2017 and reintroduced in 2025 by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, would give undocumented ground zero workers a path to citizenship, but no Republicans have signed on and each version has remained stalled in the House Judiciary Committee. Ocasio-Cortez told NPR the legislation 'genuinely should be bipartisan and non-controversial,' but with immigration reform highly divisive, advancement is unlikely. NPR reports the White House did not respond to a request for comment. For now, the workers who rushed into the wreckage say they remain in limbo: too sick to work, too afraid to leave, and still waiting for the country they helped clean up to recognize them.