Pablo Rivas, 38, came to the state out of desperation — jobs in his home country of Honduras were practically nonexistent, and his son had been diagnosed with epilepsy. He could not afford the medications, and he had heard there was plenty of work to be found in Austin.

“I came here looking for the solution, but it was worse here,” Rivas said.

It’s taking him much longer than he anticipated to save up enough money to go back home. In 2009, he was working on a job when there was an accident — two Hondurans and a Mexican worker plummeted to their deaths. Rivas remembers seeing their bodies splayed on the ground.

The other workers were sent home without their pay.

Rivas said he has no other choice than to work in construction, and he will stay in Texas only long enough to pay for his son’s treatment and buy a small plot of land in Honduras where he can farm corn and coffee.

“I have five children and I’m the provider, I’m the only person that takes care of my children and my wife,” he said.

Emily Timms, deputy director of the Workers Defense Project, said such stories are all too commonplace. According to a report published by the organization in conjunction with researchers from the University of Texas and the University of Chicago, more construction workers are killed in Texas than in any other state. One in five workers say they have suffered an injury on the job that required medical attention, and there is only one Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspector for every 100,000 workers in the state.

Meanwhile, Texas is the only state in the nation where employers are not required to carry workers’ compensation insurance.

What happens in case of an accident?

“The job is over and it’s your problem,” said Graciela Alvarado, 42, a construction worker who, despite her petite frame, works 10 to 12 hours a day sweeping up the dust and debris after a project is finished.

“I have a lot of co-workers who only last a month or so, they start coughing a lot of dry coughs, it’s hurting their backs, they get headaches,” she said.