Federal officials scrutinized for ignoring warnings as migrant children were put to work

Amna Nawaz:

More than 250,000 migrant children have entered the U.S. alone in the last two years.

Stephanie Sy dives into a new investigation on the growing problem of child labor among these migrant children.

Stephanie Sy:

Amna, we first reported in February that a New York Times investigation exposed how thousands of migrant kids are working in jobs across the country, in violation of child labor laws.

The Times' latest report reveals that the Biden administration was made aware of the risks facing these children as the Department of Health and Human Services relaxed vetting procedures to move unaccompanied minors out of overwhelmed shelters quickly.

Hannah Dreier spent a year investigating all this for The New York Times and joins me now.

Hannah, thanks for being with the "NewsHour."

So, you spoke to people in this latest piece who raised red flags that this was happening to migrant children. Who did they raise those concerns to? And why weren't they heard?

Hannah Dreier, The New York Times:

So, like you say, I spent a year looking into migrant child labor in this country.

And we found kids working in all 50 states. These are sometimes 12-, 13-year-olds. And I started asking myself, how can it be that the Biden administration didn't know about this, when it is so widespread, and we're talking about tens of thousands of children?

And it turns out, there were people in the administration, some of them in senior roles, who were trying to raise this. So the administration was told about people out in the field who were coming across children who said that they were being forced to work. And then people at the highest levels of the administration, people in the White House were told about clusters of children working in meatpacking factories, working in car plants, all around the country.

And they were also told that there were these staffers out in the field or in the D.C. headquarters who were trying to send up a warning about this. But, somehow, this still got missed. So these warnings were maybe ignored.

Stephanie Sy:

The White House denies, from what I understand, it was aware of these reports, but in at least one case, you have some evidence that one of the high officials on domestic policy within the Biden administration was aware of these reports, right?

Hannah Dreier:

So this is Susan Rice. She is Biden's top adviser for immigration. Pretty much everything that comes up the chain then goes through her team.

And, yes, members of that team say that they were hearing these reports of something's going wrong here, something's going wrong here, or the Department of Labor has found children, and not just one or two children, but dozens of children who are working at plants in the Midwest or in — basically all around the country.

What the White House has told us is, these basically were puzzle pieces that they didn't put together. And when I have gone back and asked the whistle-blowers at the agencies, well, why didn't they put them together, what these staffers say is,we think they just didn't want to know.

Stephanie Sy:

Your report has generated a lot of criticism against the Biden administration, Hannah, especially among Republicans in Washington.

Here's Senator Josh Hawley at a hearing questioning Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier today.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO):

One 13-year-old forced to wash hotel sheets in Virginia, kids running milkshake machines — milking machines, rather, in Vermont, delivering meals in New York City, scrubbing dishes late at night, all in violation of our country's laws, all facilitated by your policies.

Are you proud of this record?

Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security: Senator, the horrific exploitation of children is something that we do not condone.

You are incorrectly attributing it to our policies. One of the significant policy decisions that we have made is to focus our worksite enforcement investigative efforts, our criminal investigative efforts on unscrupulous employers that exploit individuals because of their vulnerabilities.

Stephanie Sy:

Hannah, which policies do you believe are most contributing to the exploitation and harm to these children?

Hannah Dreier:

This crisis is the result of policy failures on multiple levels.

And part of it has to do with labor enforcement. And the Biden administration has said that it is going to get very serious about enforcing child labor laws, not just with manufacturers, but also with the biggest brands that are profiting from the labor of these children.

And then, on the other side, this is a child welfare and immigration issue. And one thing that people point to in this country is, no single agency is really responsible for these children after they're released to sponsors.

So they're released. And then most of them are really on their own. And that's part of how we have ended up in this situation.

Stephanie Sy:

Hannah Dreier with The New York Times, thank you so much.

Hannah Dreier:

Thank you for having me.