For immigrant workers who die in US, a body's journey home is one last struggle

Ángel Gustavo Adolfo Paz Gutierrez, 8; his sister, Yeymi Rubi Gutierrez Paz, 13, and their cousin, Geremias Gutierrez Gomez, 22, were laid to rest March 24 in Guatemala. Barrios made use of a contact at the Guatemalan consulate to help the three-week process along, a resource of which she said not everyone is aware.

“A lot of the time, people just go around their community and they do food sales. They sell pupusas, they sell whatever, so they can raise money to repatriate,” Barrios said.

A few thousand dollars can be a hurdle for families that have just lost someone who was a breadwinner for dependents in their home country. That was the case for Geremias Gutierrez Gomez, who was supporting his child and his younger sister in Guatemala.

Also, Barrios said, funeral homes occasionally charge grieving families too much or fail to be transparent about their prices.

“If you know what’s happening, it’s not hugely complicated,” Barrios said. “But if you don’t know what’s happening, you can fall prey.”

Barrios experienced the repatriation process herself more than two decades ago. Her brother, Carlos Flores, 33, was found dead in 2003 in a trailer at a Fells Point construction site. Consumed by heartbreak, she let her then-husband handle most of the arrangements.

“For us, it wasn’t religious. It was my mother,” Barrios said. “She needed to bury him in Guatemala. She visits him there.”

For most undocumented relatives, grieving apart is a “sad reality,” Barrios said. Some people who live in the U.S. can’t travel home with a body without risking being denied reentry, while family abroad can’t easily enter the United States to make funeral arrangements. Even for those with a secure immigration status, time and distance can create their own difficulties.

“It’s a blessing and a curse when you’re here and you haven’t seen family members in so many years,” Barrios said. “When somebody passes away and you’re used to not seeing them, it’s not real sometimes that they are gone.”

Extra paperwork

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