Construction was the deadliest industry. Across the nation, about 1 in 3,100 Mexican construction laborers died at work, a rate notably greater than native-born white and black construction laborers, though in line with the rate for native-born Hispanics.

Most deaths avoidable

Federal and state safety officials are starting to grapple with the problem.

OSHA Director John Henshaw points to Spanish-language materials the agency has put on its Web site, as well as the agency's Hispanic Taskforce, which coordinates outreach.

The greatest frustration is that so many deaths are avoidable.

"Ninety-five to 99 percent of the time, there's going to be noncompliance with a standard that could have prevented the fatality," says Joe Reina, the No. 2 OSHA official for Texas and neighboring states and a leader of the Hispanic Taskforce.

Still, Reina holds workers partly responsible.

"They just don't know that they have rights and responsibilities," Reina says, including the ability to complain against employers.

Explaining those rights is one thing, enforcing them another. Some of OSHA's own officials say their resources are insufficient and note the agency's own policies generally provide for punitive action only after an accident. It's unclear what Bush's guest-worker program, if approved, would do for worker safety.

As OSHA works to improve safety, language remains a barrier. By the agency's own count, there are no Spanish-speaking inspectors or accident investigators in the half of Georgia that includes immigrant-rich Atlanta. Some other Southern cities do have Spanish-fluent enforcement officials.

In its eight-state Southeastern region, OSHA has a single Spanish-speaking outreach worker. Marilyn Velez encourages workers and employers to avoid unsafe practices.

It's not easy. Some wary workers see Velez as a police officer; others, having survived abject poverty in rural Mexico and dangerous border crossing, feel they don't need her.

"They are looking at you like, 'Are you crazy? I have done worse things,' " Velez says. "It's just the way they see risk."

Sometimes the lessons do register. But America's Mexican labor force is constantly in flux. Workers graduate to safer jobs, or perhaps they move back home. Their replacements may be the next victims.

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Contributing: Julie Reed