Our failed immigration policy is causing a child labor epidemic in the U.S.

In this commentary in the Los Angeles Times, Stephanie Canizales (UC Merced) focuses on the way that immigration law and policy results in the exploitation of child workers:

“The stories of child migrant laborers are harrowing. They take on late-night, early-morning or 12-hour shifts that keep them out of school. They work on farms, at garment and food manufacturing factories as well as meat and processing plants, in construction and sawmills — often dangerous jobs with few protections.

Despite media portrayals of this system as a new economy, historian Ivón Padilla-Rodríguez has documented that the success of industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and construction in the Southwest relied on child labor as far back as the early 20th century. My dad arrived in Los Angeles from El Salvador as a 17-year-old in the 1970s. He immediately became a garment worker in denim factories across downtown Los Angeles and later installed carpet for a man who refused to pay him.”

Click here for additional highlights of the commentary fro, Immigration Courtside.

KJ