The stretch of land running from Delaware to the South is known as the “broiler belt” because it’s dotted with towns that specialize in chicken processing. At night, children as young as 10 years old clock in at midnight so they can clean heavy machinery and pick up chicken carcasses. In many of these towns, child labor has become an open secret.
“We’ve seen an unprecedented number of children cross the border without their parents in the last few years,” says New York Times reporter Hannah Dreier. “We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of children coming to this country all on their own, and most of them are being released to distant relatives.”
In her piece “The Kids on the Night Shift,” Dreier reports on how these children start working dangerous jobs in factories, slaughterhouses, and on roofs, in order to send money home. Many of these underage workers come from Central America, which was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.
US immigration policy makes it difficult for adults from Central America to enter the country, leaving children to travel solo. The children coming to the border alone are allowed to apply for asylum. Many of them are between 10 and 12 years old and end up living with strangers who charge them for rent and food, expenses that they have no way of paying back. After attending school during the day, they head to work a late shift.
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Publish date : 2024-09-27 08:26:00
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