US policy failures are making children more vulnerable to exploitation

Exploitative child labor has seen an uptick in the United States. This is due to companies illegally hiring children to do hazardous work and many states weakening child labor protections. Now, new governmental developments risk undermining prevention efforts and even making children more vulnerable to exploitation.

The good news is that US senators Cory Booker and Josh Hawley have reintroduced bipartisan legislation that would bar companies from receiving federal contracts if they’ve been found to have violated child labor laws. But will this be enough to protect children in the US from exploitation?

Hazardous child labor in the US

In recent years, major corporations have been found exploiting child labor with little consequence. Investigations have uncovered children working illegally in slaughterhouses and factories. Often the exploited children are unaccompanied migrants who arrived in the US seeking safety. Companies like Perdue Farms and JBS have faced financial penalties for violating child labor laws. However, these fines are often little more than “the cost of doing business.”

As Senator Cory Booker told NBC News,

“Right now in America, big corporations are exploiting children in workplaces where federal law says they shouldn’t be in the first place.”

This trend is particularly alarming in agriculture, where outdated federal labor laws continue to leave child workers unprotected. Megan Wurth, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch, reports

“I have researched hazardous child labor on US farms and interviewed children working exhausting 12-hour shifts in the heat, exposed to toxic pesticides and other dangers. While hiring children to perform hazardous work at meatpacking plants and on factory floors is illegal, most of the dangerous child labor we saw on farms still is not.”

Under the Biden administration, time and resources were allocated to step up child labor enforcement. However, various new developments imposed by the Trump administration could hinder these efforts, leaving children more vulnerable to exploitation.

Why children are more vulnerable now than ever

The growing crisis of child labor exploitation in the US is the result of many policy failures. With federal labor enforcement budget and personnel cuts, the Department of Labor’s ability to investigate and prevent child labor violations is drastically reduced. As Human Rights Watch warns, “enforcement does little to help when the laws are too weak to protect children from danger.” These weak protections leave children vulnerable to some of the most hazardous work, from slaughterhouses to industrial farms, with little oversight to ensure their safety.

At the same time, Trump’s immigration policies will further exacerbate the risk of exploitation, particularly for migrant children. During his first term, Trump’s administration separated thousands of children from their families at the border. Now, he is committing mass deportations of unaccompanied minors—many of whom are already at heightened risk of forced labor.

Gabe Ortiz of America’s Voice warns,

“Targeting children—including the very young—for arrest and deportation will upend their lives while doing little to combat child trafficking and exploitation.”

Instead of protecting children from harm, these policies create an atmosphere of fear, where migrant children are too afraid to report workplace abuse for fear of deportation.

Despite bipartisan efforts to strengthen corporate accountability, Trump’s labor policies appear more focused on shielding businesses than protecting vulnerable children. With labor law enforcement under threat, immigration raids silencing victims, and corporations continuing to defy the rules, the risks for exploited children in the US are only growing.

Save child labor protections

Freedom United urgently calls on Congress to pass this bipartisan bill and ensure companies with federal contracts are held accountable for child labor in their operations. But this is not enough. Help prevent exploitative child labor by amplifying our demand for stronger protections by urging states across the U.S. to stop rolling back child labor laws. Together, we can protect children from exploitation.