House Democrats on July 18 announced that they were launching a task force to investigate the startling rise in children found working in violation of labor laws across the United States.
“Our country is facing a child labor crisis,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said in his opening remarks at a press conference announcing the launch. “Recent reporting has shown child labor violations are growing at an alarming rate, while companies very often are quite complicit.”
The creation of the Child Labor Prevention Task Force comes in the wake of a series of reports showing a sharp increase in the number of child labor law violations, many of them fueled by a huge increase in illegal immigration along the southern border. But discussions of the role immigration has played were largely absent from the discussion on the launch of the panel.
In 1938, Congress through the Fair Labor Standards Act made it a crime to employ those under 14 years of age in dangerous industries like manufacturing, mining, and processing. But the fine, according to both lawmakers and the Department of Labor, is not high enough to deter violations.
“Congress needs to step up, to strengthen the efforts to combat child labor, to hold corporations accountable, and to protect the future of these kids,” Mr. Kildee said, calling it “pretty remarkable that in the 21st century, we have to have this announcement.”on
That bill would primarily increase fines for child labor violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act, changing an $11,000 fine to a scaled fine of between $1,000 and $150,000, as well as up to a $700,000 fine for cases where violations of the law lead to the death of a minor.
The other part of the solution, Mr. Kildee said, was the task force, which he said would “work collaboratively across committee jurisdictions to come up with policy solutions to combat child labor and increase awareness of this issue among our colleagues” and would “ensure that federal agencies are doing the job properly enforcing our child labor laws, specifically looking at how federal agencies are working together to rid our supply chains of child labor.”
“It’s incumbent on Congress to join the White House in acting,” Ms. Scholten said. “Our task force will do just that creating a new space where ideas can be centralized and we can combine our efforts to achieve justice for children.
Evasive on Illegal Immigration Link
Notably missing from the lawmakers’ comments was a discussion of the ways that large-scale illegal immigration, which has accelerated rapidly under President Joe Biden, has fueled violations of child labor laws.In 2022 alone, more than 150,000 unaccompanied children—children who entered without a parent or guardian—crossed into the United States, part of a broader uptick in rates of illegal immigration since Mr. Biden took office.
Many, Ms. Rodas said, ended up in dangerous working conditions like those listed in The NY Times’ report, while others faced even worse conditions, being forced into sex slavery and prostitution.
Ms. Rodas said that this was fueled by an emphasis on “speed over safety,” citing HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra’s order that processing facilities for these children be operated “like a Ford assembly line,” with the objective of getting children into the interior as soon as possible—even without proper vetting of those claiming to be related to the children.
In addition, HHS has acknowledged that it is unsure of the whereabouts of around 85,000 children who entered the United States under the program.
Still, despite the clear link between illegal immigration and child labor violations, the subject was minimally discussed by Democrats during the hearing until reporters pressed them on it.
When asked about this link, Mr. Kildee acknowledged that it was related to the problem, and used that fact to propose “comprehensive immigration reform,” which he said “would include improving temporary worker programs but also a pathway for kids that are already here.
“None of that as an excuse not to hold accountable those companies that are taking advantage of kids no matter what their immigration status is,” he added.
Ms. Scholten, who has a background in immigration matters, reiterated Mr. Kildee’s comments.
“One of the biggest things that we could do to make sure this type of problem doesn’t keep happening is comprehensive immigration reform, eliminating the shadows, where this type of exploitation can exist, ... not to take away from the fact that these companies ultimately bear the responsibility of exploiting those shadows,” Ms. Scholten said.
Ms. Schakowsky added, “I totally agree with with that. But I also want to say the key word in terms of our reaction is children. Right? Not what kind of children not where they come from, but they’re children. And we should not leave the door open for any kind of employer wants to exploit a child. Even an immigrant child, that is not allowed.”
