The New York Times is reporting the Biden administration has repeatedly ignored or missed warnings about a surge of migrant children as young as 12 working in factories across the United States. The Times reports, At least five Health and Human Services staff members filed complaints and said they were pushed out after raising concerns about child safety. One of the HHS staffers told The New York Times, “I feel like short of protesting in the streets, I did everything I could to warn them. They just didn’t want to hear it,” she said.
In February, the Times published a blockbuster report about child labor based on accounts by over 100 unaccompanied migrant children, mostly from Central America, who described grueling and often dangerous working conditions, including having to use heavy machinery, being subjected to long hours and late-night shifts at facilities that manufacture products for major brands and retailers, like Hearthside Food Solutions, the makers of Cheerios, Fruit of the Loom, Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, J.Crew, Frito-Lay and Ben & Jerry’s. Others were forced to work as cleaning staff at hotels, at slaughterhouses, construction sites, car factories owned by General Motors and Ford, in serious violation of child labor laws.
— source democracynow.org | Apr 19, 2023