Biden administration promises crack down on child labor after damning report

The Biden administration has promised a crackdown on child labor after a damning report revealed how it has risen by nearly 70 percent in the last five years amid a surge at the border.

The New York Times published an expose last week that laid bare how hundreds of children were being funneled out of overwhelmed shelters and into the care of distant relatives or strangers. 

From there, the kids are being enrolled in schools but are also being signed up for part-time evening jobs in factories, stuffing Cheerios and Lucky Charms into cereal boxes or putting together parts to be used in cars. 

Since 2018, the number of children working illegally in US factories has risen to 3,876 from 2,299. 

Between 2021 and 2022, the number of minors working those jobs rose by over 1,000. 

Pictured: A Packers employee working in the ground beef room of the JBS plant in Grand Island, Nebraska, last month

The Times' report drew a parallel between those figures and the surge of migrant children arriving in the US. 

The reporter also uncovered a video of HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra telling staff to rush kids out of shelters, likening the backlog of cases to an ineffective 'assembly line'.

'If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line. Kids aren't widgets, I get it, but we can do way better than this,' he said during the meeting last summer. 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre however said the President still had full confidence in Becerra. 

'Of course the president does not believe that processing migrants should be treated like an assembly line, and neither does Secretary Becerra,' she said. 

On a call with reporters yesterday, however, an official said: 'This isn't a 19th century problem, this isn't a 20th century problem, this is happening today. 

'We are seeing children across the country working in conditions that they should never ever be employed in the first place.' 

In a call with staff last summer, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra compared discharging children from shelters to an 'assembly line' and said: 'If Henry Ford had seen this in his plants, he would have never become famous and rich. This is not the way you do an assembly line' 

Mayra Flores said children were being forced into 'slavery' as a result of the Biden administration continuing to allow illegal immigration 

Hearthside Food Suppliers, a plant in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is under investigation for alleged violations, as is SMART Alabama, LLC,  a subsidiary of Hyundai. 

Hyundai is now divesting from the plant in light of the report. Hearthside said it was 'appalled' by what the Times had uncovered. 

Republicans say the blame lies with the Biden administration, which has failed to get a handle on the border crisis. 

'Migrant children are being exploited for trafficking and cheap labor.

'Is the Biden Administration going to continue ignoring it?' Mayra Flores asked in a Twitter poll.

During an appearance on The Absolute Truth with Emerald Robinson, she said: 'I was blessed to come here when I was six years old. 

'I want every child to come to the US legally. I don't want them to go through abuse and trauma.

'That is exactly what is happening at our borders. This is slavery. This is truly slavery. They are being brought to the US to work, for child sex trafficking. 

'This is the horrible reality. I know the Democratic party doesn't want to face the reality but this is the reality.

'Many of them know that and still encourage illegal immigration, knowing the abuse that woman and children are going through. 

'For me the issue is not Republican or Democrat, we should all be working together to fix this serious issue.'