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Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the US
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Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the US

Hannah Dreier traveled to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia for this story and spoke to more than 100 migrant child workers in 20 states.

Hannah Dreier
The New York Times, 2023
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Unaccompanied migrant children are crossing the US southern border in increasing numbers, mostly fleeing troubled countries. Hannah Dreier reports in The New York Times that these kids often end up – in violation of US child labor laws – working punishing hours in dangerous jobs. Rather than going to school and starting new lives, migrant children work in factories or slaughterhouses or on construction sites, often to the benefit of major companies. Federal agencies such as the US Department of Health and Human Services know about these exploited children, whom they are supposed to protect, but – under political pressure not to hold migrant children – agencies tend to rush their processing without helping the kids.

Summary

The number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the US border has exploded in recent years.

In 2022, the number of migrant children who crossed into the United States unaccompanied by parents or relatives rose to 130,000, triple the total of five years earlier. Experts believe the number will rise further when summer arrives. Many unaccompanied migrant children have become part of a new “economy of exploitation.” In every state in America, migrant children end up laboring long hours in hazardous jobs.

American immigration policies that cover minors are designed to thwart human traffickers. Without these policies, many of these children – most from Central America – would be stranded on the Mexican side of the border. Since 2021, more than 250,000 children have crossed the border alone. In 2010, most of those solo kids eventually reunited with their parents. Now, more than half of unaccompanied children either connect with relatives other than their parents or end up with strangers.

Despite labor laws, migrant children often work ...

About the Author

New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing at ProPublica.

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