|
2023-02-26 Home Front: Politix
|
|
Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.
|
[DNYUZ] It was almost midnight in Grand Rapids, Mich., but inside the factory everything was bright. A conveyor belt carried bags of Cheerios past a cluster of young workers. One was 15-year-old Carolina Yoc, who came to the United States on her own last year to live with a relative she had never met.
About every 10 seconds, she stuffed a sealed plastic bag of cereal into a passing yellow carton. It could be dangerous work, with fast-moving pulleys and gears that had torn off fingers and ripped open a woman’s scalp.
The factory was full of underage workers like Carolina, who had crossed the Southern border by themselves and were now spending late hours bent over hazardous machinery, in violation of child labor laws. At nearby plants, other children were tending giant ovens to make Chewy and Nature Valley granola bars and packing bags of Lucky Charms and Cheetos — all of them working for the processing giant Hearthside Food Solutions, which would ship these products around the country.
“Sometimes I get tired and feel sick,” Carolina said after a shift in November. Her stomach often hurt, and she was unsure if that was because of the lack of sleep, the stress from the incessant roar of the machines, or the worries she had for herself and her family in Guatemala. “But I’m getting used to it.”
These workers are part of a new economy of exploitation: Migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country, a New York Times investigation found. This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century. Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee. Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina. Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota.
Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic. This labor force has been slowly growing for almost a decade, but it has exploded since 2021, while the systems meant to protect children have broken down. 
|
Posted by Penguin_of_the_Desert 2023-02-26 00:00||
||
Front Page|| [18 views ]
Top
File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
|
|
Posted by Skidmark 2023-02-26 08:32||
2023-02-26 08:32||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Procopius2k 2023-02-26 08:32||
2023-02-26 08:32||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Omomble Brown8801 2023-02-26 10:47||
2023-02-26 10:47||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Super Hose 2023-02-26 11:00||
2023-02-26 11:00||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Bobby 2023-02-26 13:56||
2023-02-26 13:56||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Eohippus Uling6547 2023-02-26 14:00||
2023-02-26 14:00||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Super Hose 2023-02-26 14:59||
2023-02-26 14:59||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Bobby 2023-02-26 16:12||
2023-02-26 16:12||
Front Page
Top
|
|
Posted by Super Hose 2023-02-26 16:22||
2023-02-26 16:22||
Front Page
Top
|
|
18:42 M. Murcek
18:35 Mullah Richard OTR
18:16 SteveS
17:50 swksvolFF
17:39 Raj
16:59 M. Murcek
16:57 M. Murcek
16:42 jpal
16:40 Procopius2k
16:37 Whiskey Mike
16:37 Procopius2k
16:35 Procopius2k
16:27 badanov
16:24 badanov
16:10 AlmostAnonymous5839
15:37 trailing wife
15:33 M. Murcek
15:26 European Conservative
15:26 Chens Ghibelline3637
15:21 DooDahMan
15:16 Elmerert Hupens2660
15:16 Grom the reflective
15:13 trailing wife
15:10 trailing wife
|
