On February 25th, The New York Times released a scathing report on the United States' migrant child labor epidemic. In the piece, Hannah Dreier documents the dramatically increasing number of child laborers working illegally for large corporations. After its publication, the Biden administration announced a crackdown on migrant child labor, putting pressure on corporations named in the article such as J. Crew, Ford, GM, Ben & Jerry’s, Walmart, Hearthside Food Solutions and more to combat the epidemic. 

In a follow-up tweet, Dreier reported that Hearthside, the parent company of Cheetos, Nature Valley, Lucky Charms, had lost a significant percentage of its workforce after checking for child laborers. (Yikes)

Hearthside Food Solutions—which makes and packages Cheetos, Cheerios and Chewy Bars—has begun going through its 39 factories to check for children. Workers say much of the staff has vanished overnight.

This is a selfie one of the kids recently sent me from the night shift. pic.twitter.com/ljp9WBSc59

— Hannah Dreier (@hannahdreier) February 28, 2023

Most of these children are not illegal immigrants, but rather kids who arrived legally through the help of a sponsor. In the past, these children were protected by the Department of Health and Human Services, but as numbers grow, old systems began breaking down. 

According to the NYT, instability in Central and South America, along with the pandemic, has significantly exacerbated the United States child labor problem. "The number of unaccompanied minors entering the United States climbed to a high of 130,000 last year — three times what it was five years earlier." In response to this influx, "the Biden White House has ramped up demands on staffers to move the children quickly out of shelters and release them to adults," according to the NYTimes. However, this change has resulted in difficulties with properly vetting sponsors. 

Some sponsors are now illegally taking on dozens of children, and profiting off of the debts those children owe them. “It’s getting to be a business for some of these sponsors,” a former case worker told the NYT. Ironically, the United States' method of circumventing human trafficking has turned into a government-sponsored system of just that, with a sprinkle of indentured servitude thrown in.

Hearthside claims that many of its employees were hired through a staffing agency that was not required to verify age through social security numbers. Without this extra verification, many children are able to land jobs by using false paperwork. A representative claims that they are now taking that step. 

It remains to be seen if any of the Biden administration's planned changes will have a positive long-term impact on this national issue, but one thing is for sure: immediate change is imperative.