‘Living in survival mode’: Houston’s embattled immigrant community faces health, climate and petrochemical crises

Cándido Álvarez has made it his policy never to go to the doctor.“Not when I’m sick, not even when it’s serious,” he said. “I prefer not to go.”So when, amid one of Houston’s increasingly sweltering summers recently, he said his body temperature reached a whopping 120F during his construction job at an unventilated bodega – and when blood in his urine indicated that such extreme heat exposure was likely damaging his kidneys – he acknowledged it was an alarm bell. But not enough of one to get him to the emergency room.He remembers how just four hours at the hospital when he had Covid-19 landed him with a $7,500 bill.“I’m going to die not so much from the illness but from thinking about how I’m going to pay the rent,” he said.Originally from Honduras, Álvarez, 47, is an undocumented immigrant who has lived in the US since 2015 and in Houston for almost as long. Unlike his wife and three kids, he doesn’t have health insurance, despite constantly facing risks on the job such as contact with mold and insulation debris, threats made worse by bosses who don’t provide basic safety equipment such as masks and eye protection.He has often