The Role of Immigrant “Second Responders”—What the LA Wildfires Teach Us

As 2025 began, the dominant media narrative about immigrants was that they were terrified. Donald Trump was about to return to the White House, and the threat of mass deportations loomed over practically every immigration news report. But on January 7, the story took a sudden twist, as wildfires exploded across metro Los Angeles. Ferocious winds and dry conditions left vast stretches of Los Angeles County vulnerable to destruction.

And then it was the immigrants who went into overdrive. Paralyzed waiting gave way to organized engagement—an urgent course of determined action that continues today, months after the fires were put out.

There are lessons in this—both for how to support immigrant workers and how to develop effective short-term and long-term disaster recovery strategies.

Responding to the Emergency: A Community Steps Up

In that momentous week in early January, the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), a coalition of more than 70 worker centers and hiring sites across the country that advocate for immigrant low-wage workers, found itself literally at the fires’ edge. Its main office is in Pasadena, as is the Pasadena Community Job Center, which NDLON runs.

Disaster recovery and rebuilding take a long time. And immigrants are often at the center of this work.

The day after the Eaton Fire started, threatening Pasadena and Altadena, immigrant workers and families went to work. Even as high winds were still whipping the flames and smoke, the Job Center became what NDLON’s coexecutive director Pablo Alvarado calls “the beating heart” of an all-out relief effort. Jornaleros (day laborers) and volunteers converged there to begin the round-the-clock work of fighting a disaster and providing support and accompaniment to those affected.

“Before the fires we had all been afraid, but now we had something to do,” Alvarado told NPQ. “Immigrant communities know all about disasters. We understand hard times. And we know the importance of mutual support, of coming together.”

Alvarado elaborated: “Because the Job Center had been so active during the pandemic, providing COVID testing and education, food, other support, people knew who we were. People displaced by the fires knew they could come to us for help. And people who wanted to volunteer knew they could do it with us.”

Which they did, by the tens of thousands. The calamity had created a community.

The Job Center swiftly formed volunteer fire relief brigades, made up of dozens of immigrant day laborers who piled into trucks into the fire zone each morning to remove fallen tree limbs and other debris. Truckloads of donated supplies were unloaded, piled and sorted, and little by little given away. People who arrived with nothing were met with kindness, hugs, and hot meals. They left with carloads of provisions to survive another day, another week. The local relief effort in Altadena and Pasadena alone reached more than 27,000 people.

The “Second Responders”

While the media spotlight focused on the immediate crisis, disaster recovery and rebuilding take a long time. And immigrants are often at the center of this work over the short and long term.

Professor Nik Theodore, professor of Urban Planning at the University of Illinois, Chicago, who has long worked with NDLON to research and document the challenges and circumstances of immigrant day laborers in the United States, has paid close attention to how these workers frequently serve as “second responders,” taking on the often dangerous jobs of cleanup, remediation, and rebuilding after natural disasters.

In a report written in 2022 after Hurricane Ida in Louisiana, Theodore examined the work of jornaleros “helping residents and business owners with debris removal; the demolition of damaged structures; and the repair and rebuilding of houses, apartment complexes, and commercial properties.”

Most workers were doing jobs amid potentially dangerous ash and dust, but few had adequate personal protective equipment.

As Theodore detailed, “cleanup operations expose second responders to a range of workplace hazards. These include dangers associated with contaminated water, downed power lines, damaged and unstable structures, and exposure to mold and other fungi. For those who are working at unsafe heights to repair roofs, cut trees, and replace siding, there is a danger of falling from building tops, scaffolds, or ladders.”

Added to the risks, Theodore elaborated, were the rapid pace, long hours, limited rest breaks, and some hazards unknown to the crews doing the work.

Second Responders in Altadena

The Los Angeles fires illustrate all of these trends. This spring, Theodore assembled a research team to examine the status of second responders at construction and recovery sites across Altadena. What his team found has been disturbing.

Theodore’s report, Rebuilding Altadena: Critical Gaps in Worker Safety After the Eaton Fire, surveyed 240 active worksites, where more than 1,200 workers were cleaning and rebuilding. The report found that most workers were doing jobs amid potentially dangerous ash and dust, but few had adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect their lungs from toxic metals and other contaminants. The Los Angeles Times called this finding a “shocking truth.”

While nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of tradespeople working on cleanup sites were observed wearing protective headgear, just 20 percent were observed wearing N100, N95, or half-face respirators, and 18 percent were observed wearing safety glasses. One-quarter (24 percent) were observed wearing gloves, and 9 percent wore Tyvek coveralls or similar protection.

Residents faced similar hazards, especially tenants who had no choice but to return to neighborhoods where buildings, yards and playgrounds are presumed to be contaminated. Remediating a single house or apartment costs thousands of dollars, often well beyond the reach of renters with low incomes and inadequate insurance.

As Alvarado explained, “There hasn’t been any equity in the rebuilding. Homeowners are being given only half of what it costs to rebuild. Developers are circling. Workers and housekeepers are doing remediation in toxic conditions without protection. And we still haven’t seen a comprehensive study of what’s in the ashes.”

In March, at a fire-damaged apartment complex on Figueroa Drive in Altadena, building residents who had formed a comité de inquilinos—a tenants’ committee—raised the alarm at a news conference.

Cities and towns that plan ahead, formalize, and make permanent their support for “second responders” would be doing their residents a great service.

One committee member, Brenda Lopez-Ardon, said: “We were forced to return to our apartments, even though we knew they might be contaminated, because we have nowhere else to go. We know we are putting our health at risk, but we don’t have the resources to do anything else. What’s most heartbreaking is that the company that owns the building is lying to us and offering no help. That’s why we decided to organize and fight for what’s right—because we love this place deeply. I grew up here, and now my daughter is growing up here, and we’re not going to let anyone take away what’s ours.”

As Jose Madera, who directs the Pasadena Community Job Center, said at the news conference: “From Fair Oaks to Figueroa, we stood united for safe housing, fair and safe jobs, clean air, and a future where no one is left behind. We reject displacement, exclusion, and decisions made without us. We will not allow disaster to become an excuse for gentrification or injustice.”

What Philanthropy and Public Policy Can Do

Sadly, given the climate crisis, natural disasters are only likely to become more frequent. As federal data attests, nearly a third of major disasters that cost $1 billion or more (adjusted for inflation) since 1980 have occurred in the past five years.

What can philanthropy and public policy do? For one, they would do well to remember is what Fred Rogers used to tell children who were frightened by disasters: “Look for the helpers.” The jornaleros of Pasadena, like second responders everywhere, stepped in to fill some of the gaps that are always left after a disaster. And the role they have played is not unique to Los Angeles.

For example, the vast effort to clear Ground Zero in New York City after 9/11, which mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers, is one of the best-known examples of people coming together after a disaster for the short and long haul. Donors make an invaluable investment when they help organizations build capacity to organize, staff up, pre-position supplies—and be ready ahead of a disaster striking.

Sometimes, the most effective support policymakers and government officials can provide is by creating the space for community-driven efforts to flourish. After initially balking at NDLON’s relief activities, the City of Pasadena allowed the Job Center’s supply distribution operation to expand into a disused city parking lot across the street—a simple accommodation that gave second responders room to operate. Speed, efficiency, and the number of people served increased dramatically. But this was an improvisation—cities and towns that plan ahead, formalize, and make permanent their support for second responders would be doing their residents a great service.

Supporting Immigrants

Many immigrants have an added burden of vulnerability when disasters hit. For the undocumented, going to work—or even fleeing a fire or hurricane—means always being in danger of having their papers checked, of losing their job, or even being detained. Immigrants also risk being abused and exploited by employers. This may explain why so many workers Theodore surveyed lacked basic safety equipment.

And in recent weeks and months, many immigrant second responders have been scared away from the work of rebuilding by ongoing ICE raids around Los Angeles—including Pasadena.

Making workplaces safer and less abusive benefits all workers, not just immigrants, and is an important step not just for workplace safety but for resiliency in the face of natural disasters. A study by the Workplace Justice Lab at Rutgers University and Northwestern University found that as of May 2025, the US Wage and Hour Division had just 611 open investigators in the entire country—the lowest number since at least 1973 and less than half of what it was at its 1978 peak.

In a bottom-up effort to close the safety gap, NDLON has been going to disaster job sites and day labor corners in Los Angeles County to distribute 10,000 PPE kits that include hard hats, respirators, coveralls, goggles, and other safety items, as well as training materials.

Part of this support work also includes training workers to learn Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)-approved safety practices. “It’s a huge job that needs to be done quickly, across a huge area,” Loyda Alvarado, NDLON’s health and safety organizer, informed NPQ. She said the need for speed stemmed from one of the dire lessons learned after 9/11: Health problems among workers at Ground Zero did not emerge immediately, but the long-term toll in illness and death was severe.

Increasing work permits and strengthening OSHA protections for immigrant workers may be pipe dreams in the current political climate. But it is clear immigrant second responders make their communities safer and more resilient after disasters. And that benefits everyone.