But both charter schools
>> There's someone put a super bomb been through. A number of
bear on
and for your love song going last 3 per.
>> You walk into the building, but
the operations enormous.
And as we walked,
I was like,
that's a kid.
That's a kid.
Keep your head down. Stay low. Don't get noticed.
You have to be very naive to look at some of these kids and
go.
They're over 18.
>> With nighttime falls,
more than 1300 slaughterhouses across the country must be
scrapped top to bottom.
Former workers say cleaning what's called the kill floor is
dangerous. Work
the floor, a slippery combination of blood. Animal
fat, harsh chemicals and hot water.
NBC News conducted a yearlong investigation interviewing
dozens of slaughterhouse employees, whistleblowers,
local authorities and government officials after
reviewing thousands of pages of internal company documents,
police report an accident records. What we found was
striking.
NBC News discovered that the hiring of children as young as
14 to work in slaughterhouses was pervasive and ongoing
practice happening in plain sight and towns across the
country.
Some calling it an open secret.
In 2023 alone. A 6,000 kids were working illegally across
industries in the U.S.
with the agency investigating more than 800 child labor cases
and 47 states.
Some experts say today's tight labor market is in part to
blame for an 88% spike in children being a legally
employed across all industries. Since 2019
as a result, more underage children are working in
dangerous conditions.
Some employees look young but are over 18.
Others are clearly children.
One of those kids was working here in Hattiesburg,
Mississippi.
>> Devon Perez was working the night shift at Marczak poultry
in July when he was killed after getting s***** into
equipment that accidentally turned on.
He was 16 years old.
His uncle told us he was a happy teenager.
>> Wilkinson, the Highland offense and that the U.S. will
though. Most of the U.S. what on a steadily that minimum he
has done this. So it's open to Medi-Cal
this little science and not make that is mobile.
>> To find work overnight at the slaughterhouse and by day
attended middle school here, a few grades behind other kids.
His age.
He wasn't the first person to get caught in the machine and
diet the plant.
>> The 40 year-old man died from his injuries following an
accident that happened at the Our Jack Poaching plant in
Harrisburg on Monday night.
>> Devine came to the U.S. from Guatemala in the last decade
with his family. But in the last 2 years, more than a
quarter million migrant children have arrived in this
country alone without their parents.
Almost half are from Guatemala.
This is where to find grew up.
And we've got ala
will be an impoverished Mountain village.
His uncle said Devine and his family wanted a better life for
themselves.
Such a partisan political nemesis. You that.
>> In an amendment to cut like simple, but it's a sin, but
But it's a mess on that looking to set up. But it's no fun.
>> So if a poem
was to police because of the levee that people look at a
little south of one of a non days that he has, he's like us
to
and maybe a little so late in the economy. And the key is the
cost of business but says it will be a false name.
>> With so many people leaving for the U.S. aspects of
everyday life in Guatemala are changing.
The migration of children alone is having an impact.
NBC News found in the last 15 years. More than 1500 schools
have shut down in Guatemala, including many rural schools
along the border with Mexico into Vaughn's region alone.
23 schools have shut down. One Guatemalan government
agency notes. The demand for education is decreasing in part
because kids are leaving for the United States.
Many end up in towns
like this one.
>> There's not maintain restaurants.
There is very little entertainment,
one movie theater. And that said we do have like a bowling
alley or skating ring or anything like that.
What moves the money? Here is the meat packing plants.
>> Dodge City is about 1000 miles northwest of Hattiesburg.
It's one of many small Midwestern towns, Central
American migrants. We now call home
all of these communities have one or more slaughterhouses
driving the local economy.
>> There are people here who are wanting to bring other
family members so they contact the smugglers in this in this.
And I have a family member who was to come here.
Sadly, the smugglers, they have their price.
>> It's that you don't want them. Law is one through 3.
>> For 2 years on the severe law, it's the reporters saw.
>> This adult Marczak slaughterhouse worker told us
they are employed legally. They asked NBC News that they
can stay anonymous out of fear of losing their job. They're
one of many who came from Guatemala to work at the plant.
>> You're part of this. So our idea storm near income opinion
was not to comment.
The new normal different tone where one single pay less.
>> They are supposed to pay that money back within one or 2
years
because the sooner they pay back the sooner they can bring
other family members.
So that's that's the circle.
>> We spoke exclusively to a former manager of Slaughter
House, cleaner Packers, Sanitation Services, Inc or PSA
side. They asked to stay anonymous out of fear of
repercussions from speaking out.
>> Welcome to show customers but a lot of automated.
But on the return of the understand this, things are
going to have been a lot of time to you. If you don't treat
>> He says I paid a 1.5 million dollars civil penalty in 2023
for violating child labor laws that maintains they did not
knowingly hire children gets assigned. Tell us they have a 0
tolerance policy against employing anyone under the age
of 18. And I said they've implemented enhanced screening
processes and technologies and their hiring practices.
>> Was going. Shannon, who is a U.S. Labor Department
investigator says that her findings led to PS aside being
penalized for employing children.
You walk into the building, but in the operations enormous.
>> And as we walked, I was like, wow, that's a kid in.
That's a kid. And so we would stop and
talk to them briefly.
We found a systemic failure on the company's part. There were
over 100 and 2 children that we verified their age and their
identities that were working the night shift too.
Now, as I'm pulling my children a bed to go to school in the
mornings. I'm thinking, you know, they have this
comfortable that they had a good night of sleep and they
have to go to school. And how are these other children who
have worked thus not just a regular job, but a taxing job
all night
getting up and having the same expectations like they have the
same chance like
it's dangerous. It's prohibited and is prohibited for a reason
because it's so dangerous.
>> You have to act like an adult. You have to behave like
an adult. You have to perform like an adult.
>> In the view mess up, you get treated like an adult.
>> And they get paid like adults often well above minimum
wage. Many immigrants are desperate for these jobs to
feed their families.
>> Our key Carmel,
the moment idea.
>> You know what the Monogram owned or more?
I'm DIA is more from a different answer.
You'll start warrior about this. Who miss the bar. Use
your to this point. Where about the super pull? It
will tell us the moment. Also from the model.
>> Well, there's some real pressure on them to try to find
work.
>> Attorney Larry Stein has represented margin for more
than 3 decades. He agreed to talk to us about the van,
Steph.
>> The people are paying loans to get up to here. And I don't
think there's a lot of people that
very kind, shall we say.
>> Hard to fill these jobs with legal people who are legally
allowed to work in the United States is hard. Yes, it is.
Is it possible,
although it's impossible, but it's hard.
>> Some workers at Marczak use stolen identities to get their
jobs were attacked. Communicated to the company and
law enforcement.
NBC News obtained police reports showing that for years
Americans complained to March back and call the local police.
They say their identities were stolen by our Jack workers used
their Social Security numbers to get jobs at the plant.
We discovered that at the time of his death, 16 year-old
Yvonne had used the identity. The 32 year-old man to get his
job according to the company.
Was the company surprised to learn that Ivana 16 years old?
Yes, they were surprised.
>> That I can tell you they were surprised to.
>> And so my heart of on it, if you can look at this to me,
do you think that he looks 32 years old and he did not lead
32, but he might look a team.
>> So going to be news tomorrow, Jack, that there are
people working there.
>> Under fake ID's if they got these calls previous? Well,
because then you have to depend. You know, you're
depending on the credibility is the person calling ERs the
person there
and were limited.
They gave us this documentation. We cannot look
into it.
>> Stein says the company's hands are tied.
>> We are prohibited by law
from going beyond that system
know. That's sad reality. But that's the one that there,
frankly, all in Boise, United States operate under.
>> We asked Shannon, able to do with the Department of Labor is
a company generally was responsible if they've been
duped with fake papers.
So the company is responsible for following the child labor
provisions which says that you can't work in a meat packing
capacity until you're 18 years of age and they are required to
do due diligence.
>> We've now put signs on all over the facilities and ever
and no date team may enter. We put it in English and we put
it in Spanish.
>> Marczak says that to Van was hired by an outside staffing
company. And that March Act now requires that company to
provide a photo when someone applies for a job.
The federal government has not find Marczak if they do the
maximum fine for hiring a child is $15,138 per instance.
>> This fines actually have an impact on how these companies
do business.
>> I think the publicity of having something like that is
far worse than the penalty I did. Nobody wants to be seen to
have higher a child.
>> One source of the plan told us they worried children were
still employed even after divine Steph.
We asked our Jack and they told us they have reviewed its
entire workforce and does not believe they're employing
anyone under 18.
Can you say definitively that there are no more children
working from our Jack?
>> Lower 9, there's no way I could ever say that
definitively it.
>> Marczak slaughters approximately 2 million
chickens per week across multiple facilities. NBC News
learned that some of the check-in process tomorrow Jack
goes to Chick-Fil-A.
>> For more most careful as they left the amber system from
But Moss and the role
and dozens going where most of the resort is most obvious.
Most of the last game. More for what I'm being honest about
what their behind bars at most businesses to come from a to
>> The worker also told us that every year employees are given
a coupon for a free Chick-Fil-A sandwich.
We've reached out to Chick-Fil-A to ask for a
comment on the relationship with more Jack. In light of 16
year-old Yvonne STEM, a spokesperson told NBC News we
are reviewing our procedures for investigation and response
as we pursue the steps necessary to effectively hold
all their suppliers to our high safety standards.
As NBC News documented instances of child labor across
the country, it started to become clear how prevalent the
issue is throughout many American communities.
>> I sit through ads in farms.
>> They're finding themselves under federal investigation of
Labor says When it America Incorporated violated child
labor laws at the forefront of a new report that accuses a
food manufacturer of violating child labor laws. Poultry,
famous for the Amish Farm Chicken.
>> Now Congress is scrambling to figure out how to fix this
issue.
>> I know without a lot of, you know, whether CWA somewhere in
one of the FDA.
>> And what does it do to deal with this video? This is where
you will not back to him