Imported Exploitation: Worker-Led Solutions to Address a Growing Immigrant Child Labor Crisis

Since the Progressive Era, the United States has vowed to eradicate the “evil” of dangerous child labor, both within the nation and abroad. Congress enacted the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938 to provide meaningful labor protections, including restrictions on child employment, particularly for those working in hazardous fields. The Act was intended to operate in tandem with complimentary state-level protections. Despite this, following a surge in migration from Central and South America and a strained United States domestic labor market in the twenty-first century, conditions have once again become ripe for child labor exploitation. Within the United States today, despite federal and state-level monitoring regimes, migrant children remain exceptionally vulnerable. To better protect these minors, this Note proposes drawing on past labor movements’ successes by embracing worker-led co-enforcement strategies. These strategies may empower workers and grassroots organizations to actively monitor, report, and address gaps federal regulators left.