A ‘dreamer’ dies trying to save Harvey victims, days before Trump ends deportation protections

As Harvey’s wrath descended on Texas, Alonso Guillen’s father begged him not to make the 200km trek to the Houston area to rescue those stranded in the storm’s floodwaters.

“It is too dangerous,” his father pleaded, Guillen’s brother recalled.

But when it came to helping others, Guillen, a 31-year-old Mexican immigrant, was headstrong, relatives said.

On August 29, Guillen left his job as a radio host early to pile into a white Chevy Tahoe with a group a friends. The volunteers from Lufkin made the drive to Cyprus Creek in Spring, a suburb of Houston. Once there, they set out on five boats, using a walkie-talkie app to identify people who needed rescuing.

Late that night, as Guillen and his group were on their way to pluck survivors from an apartment complex, their rescue boat slammed into an Interstate 45 bridge. The collision hurled Guillen and his friend, Tomas Carreon, 25, also of Lufkin, into the rushing floodwaters. A third person in the boat was later rescued, grasping onto a tree, the Houston Chronicle reported.