From cleaning lettuce in the field to fighting child labor in Washington DC

At just 11 years old, Jacqueline Aguilar would get up before four in the morning to go to the fields to clean lettuce in a small town in Colorado. More than nine hours of work in the sun awaited her with only thirty minutes to eat.

Now 20 years old, Jacqueline has managed to leave behind her life in the countryside to fight against child labor, the reality of many children in the United States, especially migrants, from her job in Washington DC.

Child labor violations have been on the rise since 2015, after years of decline, according to data from the US Department of Labor. The truth is that, more and more, states introduce and enact laws to weaken the regulations that limit the work of minors, something that further threatens the right of children to be just that, children.

In fact, a federal investigation this year found that more than 100 minors were illegally employed in dangerous jobs, although it came to light due to the simple fact that one of the children suffered chemical burns from cleaning products, he said in statements to EFE. Reid Maki, the director of Child Labor Advocacy, where Jacqueline Aguilar also works.

Added to them are the more than 300 minors recently found to be working at 3 McDonald’s franchises, including two 10-year-old boys.

Many of those who defend child labor attribute this increase to a “lack of manpower” something that should not be replaced with adolescent workers, claims Maki. In turn, she points out that a large part of these children are migrants, since in the last four years “There has been a huge increase in the number of unaccompanied minors coming to the US.”.

These children are in conditions that make them especially vulnerable, such as their possible debt to the “coyotes” that help them to enter the country or their lack of economic resources.

Jacqueline’s parents emigrated from Mexico after having her older sister. In Center, a small town in Colorado, she and her sisters walked to the fields at dawn to work. From the ages of 11 to 15, Jacqueline cleaned lettuce for more than 9-hour days without a break, along with other children.

“There came a time when my parents, who worked in agriculture, could no longer buy me clothes for school. They told me: ‘We don’t have money to buy you shoes’explains Jacqueline speaking in Spanish to EFE about how she was forced to start working at the age of 11.

Jacqueline vividly remembers that it was especially difficult to return to the field in her last year of high school, at 17, after leaving her job at 15 and following her father’s diagnosis of cancer.

The young woman claims that “many people cut their fingers” and “things fell on their feet”and the workers, not having any medical insurance, did not go to the hospital.

“As a girl, I was not supposed to be there. It is a very dangerous job and it can even cost you your life, ”says the student, who recalls how throughout that time she endured very adverse weather conditions. “One day it was snowing heavily and everyone wanted to go home. I remember they told us: ‘No, you can’t leave until the end of the day’Add.

Under federal child labor standards, children must be 14 years old to hold a job for no more than three hours on school days and eight hours on non-school days, except in some cases such as agriculture. Loopholes allow minors to legally work an unlimited number of hours at age 12, as long as they don’t miss school, Maki says.

Precisely agriculture, in addition to meat processing plants, is one of the sectors where more violations of child labor occur. In fact, more children die in agriculture than in any other industry, according to a 2018 report from the US government.

Maki’s organization estimates that about 300,000 minors are employed on farms in the country. Today, there are 12-year-olds working in tobacco fields legally, even though they have to be 21 to buy it.

In the last 2 years, at least 14 states have introduced or passed laws that nullify protections against child labor. This is the case in Arkansas, where verification of the child’s age or the authorization of her parents is no longer required.

Or Iowa, where a new law, passed by the state Congress and awaiting the Republican governor’s signature, would allow children to work longer hours and in dangerous positions, directly contradicting federal law.

Maki denounces that it could “To be condemning an adolescent to generational poverty”something in which Jacqueline agrees, who confesses that some minors choose to continue working and drop out.

Meanwhile, Jacqueline continues to see children abused in the fields of her village every summer.

Source: EFE