Investigation: Migrant Children Routinely Employed in Violation of U.S. Labor Laws

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2023

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Across the U.S., migrant children are employed in violation of child labor laws, in under-the-table operations and in global corporations alike, according to a new New York Times investigation. They work in dangerous conditions in construction, in factories and in slaughterhouses. They work long hours in kitchens, hotels and farm fields. They fall asleep in high school after working night shifts; some drop out of school altogether. Reporter Hannah Dreier spoke with more than 100 migrant child workers in 20 states as well as the companies employing them and the government agencies meant to protect them. She joins to talk about how this “new economy of exploitation” exploded over the past two years and how the Biden Administration has responded to her reporting. Guests: Hannah Dreier, reporter on the investigations team, The New York Times Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:56.7	From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum.
1:17.3	I'm Scott Schaefer, in today for Mina Kim.
1:20.0	Across the U.S., migrant children are employed in violation of child labor laws.
1:25.1	A New York Times investigation details the dangerous conditions they're
1:29.1	working in, and Congress is reacting. Stories of kids dropping out of school, collapsing
1:34.8	from exhaustion, and even losing limbs to machinery. These are the things that one might expect
1:41.5	to find in a Charles Dickens or Upton Sinclair novel,
1:45.8	but not an account of everyday life in America in 2023.
1:51.3	Reporter Hannah Dreyer joins us to talk about this new economy of exploitation right after the news.
2:19.8	Welcome to Forum. I'm Scott Schaefer and today for Mina Kim. We'll try to imagine a child saying this to you. I'd like to go to school, but then how would I pay rent? Well, that's what 13-year-old Jose Vasquez told New York Times reporter Hannah Dreyer.
2:27.0	Jose works 12-hour shifts, six days a week at a commercial egg farm in Michigan, and he's one of the migrant children working across the U.S. for companies like Whole Foods, Jay Crew, General Mills,
2:32.5	and Ben and Jerry's ice cream to name just a few.
2:35.4	Reporter Hannah Dreyer spoke with many of them as part of a recent New York Times investigation
	...

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