Migrant Children & the Risks of Labor Exploitation

Immigrating comes with high risks, and for children, the risks are even higher. Migrant children are at risk of being sexually trafficked and financially exploited, and, oftentimes, migrant children fall into debt and enter the workforce, earning less than minimum wage for hard labor.

Unaccompanied minors at a processing center.

According to the New York Times, children as young as 12 work in jobs so dangerous that former workers have had their fingers ripped off by the very machines these kids work with. Some of these kids have died due to work-related accidents. They work in factories, packaging things like breakfast favorites such as Cheerios, for sometimes as little as $600 a week, or they wash sheets at hotels and dishes in restaurants.

Many of these children work daily shifts 12 to 17 hours long, leading them to have a hard time in school. Some children have dropped out of school to make time for their jobs.

Schools hesitate to report the children’s employers for child labor because they know the children have to work to send money back home to their families or pay off debts, with the interest accumulating the longer they take. On top of this, they also have to earn enough to take care of themselves.

Because these children are often unaccompanied, they are sent to sponsors, who are usually distant relatives, but not always, with some sponsors being complete strangers. These sponsors are often the people collecting the debts that the children have. The children have to pay for things like the sponsor filing paperwork or a single dinner, on top of their own expenses. These children aren’t checked on, and there have been cases where they have disappeared and have never been found. The sponsors are not properly checked out, according to the Government Accountability Project in its report to the HHS, which looks into these sponsors, and the Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin. Some children have filed police reports, but no one comes to help them.

Until recently, the HHS didn’t even have a policy to call back children who reported unsafe conditions. They have since changed that. The Department of Labor, according to CBS News, has seen a 70% increase since 2018 in the percentage of children illegally working in the United States. The Department of Labor is so understaffed that they often can’t respond to the complaints of minors working, and because of that, investigating these complaints happens even less.

According to the New York Times, when the Labor Department looked into these complaints, it shifted the focus to the independent contractors instead of the corporations themselves. When it has focused on the companies, it only gives them a fine. However, some of these large companies are worth hundreds of millions of dollars. A one or two-million-dollar fine does nothing to change the circumstances. They’ll make up that loss in a short time, especially considering these children aren’t getting paid standard wages.

Child labor is also “almost never a criminal offense,” according to an NPR News interview with New York Times Investigative Journalist Hannah Drier.

The highest fine is $15,000. This is nothing to a giant corporation. This is further complicated because these children aren’t directly working for a corporation. They’re hired by staffing agencies, who are hired by the manufacturer. The companies can claim ignorance through this.

Another big issue is that many American citizens refuse to do these jobs. These jobs then often go to adult illegal immigrants. It’s likely only due to the influx of child immigrants that these jobs are being given to them. No one else would take them if not as incredibly desperate as the migrants are.

According to PBS News, the Biden administration is attempting to get a handle on enforcing child labor laws. However, states like Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, and Ohio have already repealed numerous policies in place to prevent things like this. In these states, according to NPR News, children are permitted to work without permits, to work long shifts, and to work in dangerous conditions. 

Child labor, especially for migrant children, continues to remain a crucial issue in the United States.