Hurricane Harvey: Body Of Volunteer Rescue Worker, DACA Recipient, Pulled From Texas Creek

HOUSTON, TX — The body of a rescue worker pulled from Cypress Creek on Sunday was identified as a Lufkin, Texas, native—who happened to be a DACA recipient—whose first instinct was to help save flood victims despite his family's fears over his safety.

Alonso Guillen, 31, was a disc jockey from Lufkin, the Houston Chronicle reported. His body was recovered four days after Hurricane Harvey-fueled flooding slammed his rescue boat against an Interstate frontage road bridge. Guillen disappeared on that Wednesday midnight along with two friends after their boat capsized, the newspaper reported.

On Friday, the body of another rescue worker on that boat, Tomas Carreon Jr., was plucked from the fast-moving water of Cypress Creek in Spring, Texas. Another of those rescue workers, was rescued while clinging to a tree amid rushing water. And by Sunday afternoon, Guillen's body was spotted floating past a sandy berm where his members of his family had been on grim watch for their loved one, taking turns gazing out at the murky flood, the newspaper reported.

Guillen's body was found as the creek level receded after the tropical storm rains finally let up. He was the last of the rescue workers who had gone missing last week. As part of his disc jockey persona, Guillen adopted the name of "ocho," the Spanish word for the number eight. In the days leading up to his body being found, friends and work associates took to social media to express their sadness over his likely fate.

Guillen's father, Jesús Guillen, told the newspaper he had begged his son not to attempt to rescue people in the storm given the dangers. But he had insisted, saying he wanted to help people. "Thank you, God, for the time I had with him," the elder Guillen said as he cried in coming to terms with his son's death.

The dead rescue worker was born in Piedras Negras, Mexico, and had arrived to Texas as a teenager. He and his friends borrowed a boat in trying to reach a flooded apartment complex through the rough flood waters when they hit at bridge near Interstate 45 and Beltway 8, according to the report.

Guillen was a "Dreamer," one of the approximately 100,000 immigrants settling in Texas who arrived undocumented into the U.S. as children. As such, he was enrolled in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created by President Barack Obama to defer immediate deportations through the use of two-year renewable work permits.

Donald Trump is expected to dismantle the DACA program come Tuesday, throwing the lives of more than 800,000 immigrants in the U.S. into uncertainty and probable mass deportation. The elder Guillen is a lawful permanent resident, while his mother is in the midst of applying for legal status according to reports.

Reacting to news reports on Guillen's death, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials posted a message on Twitter saying they have no record of Guillen's mom applying for admission into the U.S. this year. Howver, CPB officials said they were working with the Mexican consulate to accommodate the woman's travel in attending her son's upcoming funeral.

"I've lost a great son, you have no idea," the weeping mother said in a telephone interview with the Chronicle from her home in Piedras Negras, just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. "I'm asking God to give me strength."

The death toll from Hurricane Harvey as of Monday included more than 60 victims.

>>> Read the full story at Houston Chronicle

Image: Hurricane Harvey aftermath, Associated Press photo/David J. Phillip