U.S. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana warned of “an increasing trend in exploitative child labor,” according to two separate letters sent to the Biden administration’s Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday. new york post report.
of letterThe document, obtained by the newspaper, asks ministries for answers on plans to curb child labor violations, which have increased by 88% since 2019. Cassidy also noted a 50% increase from 2022 onwards.
The HHS Inspector General report Last month, it was found that the ministry had failed to conduct safety checks on child sponsors in 16% of case files.
Cassidy said the Biden administration has “relaxed sponsor screening requirements” that put unaccompanied immigrant minors at risk of human trafficking. HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement protects children from “smugglers, human traffickers, and others who may seek to victimize or involve children in criminal, harmful, or exploitative activities.” responsibilities, and this includes performing dangerous work in exploitative conditions,” Cassidy said. I have written.
Republican senators referred to recent statements. report Immigrant children have been injured working in various factories across the United States, including in meat-packing facilities where they work night shifts cleaning dangerous machinery. Cassidy said children as young as 12 are “working in dangerous jobs day and night” such as roofers and sawmill workers.
“The number of unaccompanied migrant children crossing the southern border has increased in recent years under the Biden administration, and the negative incentives for these children to be exposed to dangerous working conditions are an intolerable tragedy, and I must find an immediate and lasting solution,” Cassidy said in a letter to the DOL’s Wage and Hour Division.
Cassidy said it took six months for the DOL to notify Congress that a 16-year-old immigrant child died in July 2023 while cleaning a boning machine at a chicken farm.
“It is clear that the enforcement actions taken so far against violators have not slowed the upward trend in exploitative child labor,” he added.
The DOL acknowledges that child labor violations are on the rise.
“In 2023, we National Strategic Enforcement Initiative on Child Labor “We will place increased emphasis on addressing this critical issue,” the ministry said. Website state.
The DOL found 5,792 minors working illegally in fiscal year 2023, up from 3,876 in 2022. The department’s new initiative aims to use “data-driven, worker-centered strategies to initiate investigations where child labor violations are most likely to occur.”
Neither the DOL nor HHS responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
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