{"id":4124,"date":"2020-11-23T18:09:42","date_gmt":"2020-11-23T18:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/?p=4124"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T14:54:15","slug":"la-vida-de-los-adolescentes-inmigrantes-que-trabajan-en-peligrosos-turnos-de-noche-en-fabricas-de-las-afueras-de-la-ciudad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/es\/2020\/11\/23\/inside-the-lives-of-immigrant-teens-working-dangerous-night-shifts-in-suburban-factories\/","title":{"rendered":"La vida de los adolescentes inmigrantes que trabajan en peligrosos turnos de noche en f\u00e1bricas suburbanas"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"level1\">\n<article>\n<div class=\"article-wrap\">\n<div class=\"article-body\">\n<div class=\"top-notes\">\n<div id=\"newsletter-txt-note\" class=\"note\"><span style=\"color: #808080;\">Above: Christie Tirado for ProPublica<\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"note co-publish\">\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>ProPublica Illinois is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to get\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/newsletters\/propublica-illinois?source=www.propublica.org&amp;placement=top-note&amp;region=illinois\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/newsletters\/propublica-illinois?source%3Dwww.propublica.org%26placement%3Dtop-note%26region%3Dillinois&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1606246213958000&amp;usg=AOvVaw12SBoQUGZyzuEJqM7KlLEu\">weekly updates<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>about our work.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/pixel.propublica.org\/pixel.js\" async=\"true\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><em>This story was co-published with Mother Jones and El Pa\u00eds.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/2020\/11\/23\/el-mundo-secreto-de-los-adolescentes-inmigrantes-que-trabajan-en-peligrosos-turnos-nocturnos-en-fabricas-suburbanas\/\"><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/span><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';\">It\u2019s a little before 6 a.m. and still dark when Garcia gets home from work this October morning. The apartment where he lives with his aunt and uncle is silent. They\u2019ve already left for their own jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"1.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"3026\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">After nine hours hosing down machinery at a food processing plant, Garcia is tired and hungry. But he has less than an hour to get ready for high school, where he is a junior. He quickly showers, gets dressed and reheats some leftover chicken soup for a meal he refers to as his dinner. Then he gulps down some coffee, brushes his teeth and walks outside to catch the school bus waiting near the edge of the sprawling apartment complex.<\/p>\n<h4 id=\"triple-your-impact-today-between-november-1-and-december-31-newsmatch-will-match-your-new-monthly-donation-12x-or-triple-your-one-time-gift-all-up-to-5000\" class=\"pk-content-block pk-block-bg pk-block-bg-light\" style=\"text-align: left;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Triple your impact today. Between November 1 and December 31 NewsMatch will match your new monthly donation 12x or triple your one-time gift, all up to $5,000.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><a class=\"pk-button pk-button-md pk-button-primary pk-font-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/donate\/\" target=\"_blank\" >\n\t\t\t Donate \n\t\t<\/a><\/h4>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"1.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6625997\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Here in the Chicago suburb of Bensenville, and in places like it throughout the country, Guatemalan teenagers like Garcia spend their days in class learning English and algebra and chemistry. At night, while their classmates sleep, they work to pay debts to smugglers and sponsors, to contribute to rent and bills, to buy groceries and sneakers, and to send money home to the parents and siblings they left behind.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"1.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626031\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">They are among the tens of thousands of young people who have come to this country over the past few years, some as unaccompanied minors, others alongside a parent, amid a spike in the number of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"3.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626133\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Around Urbana-Champaign, the home of the University of Illinois, school district officials say children and adolescents lay shingles, wash dishes and paint off-campus university apartments. In New Bedford, Massachusetts, an indigenous Guatemalan labor leader has heard complaints from adult workers in the fish-packing industry who say they\u2019re losing their jobs to 14-year-olds. In Ohio, teenagers work in dangerous chicken plants.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"3.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626168\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">ProPublica interviewed 15 teenagers and young adults in Bensenville alone who said they work or have worked as minors inside more than two dozen factories, warehouses and food processing facilities in the Chicago suburbs, usually through temporary staffing agencies, and nearly all in situations where federal and state child labor laws would explicitly prohibit their employment.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"3.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626198\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Though most of the teens interviewed for this story are now 18, they agreed to speak on the condition that they not be fully identified and that their employers not be named because they feared losing their jobs, harming their immigration cases or facing criminal penalties.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"3.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626230\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Some began to work when they were just 13 or 14, packing the candy you find by the supermarket register, cutting the slabs of raw meat that end up in your freezer and baking, in industrial ovens, the pastries you eat with your coffee. Garcia, who is 18 now, was 15 when he got his first job at an automotive parts factory.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626399\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Like many adult workers, they often don\u2019t even know the names of the factories where they work. They refer to them, in Spanish, by the product they make or pack or sort: \u201clos dulces\u201d (the candies), \u201clos metales\u201d (the metals) and \u201clas mangueras\u201d (the hoses).<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626466\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The teenagers use fake IDs to get the jobs through temporary staffing agencies that recruit immigrants and, knowingly or not, accept the papers they are handed. Working overnight allows the teens to attend school during the day. But it\u2019s a brutal trade-off. They nod off in class; many ultimately drop out. And some, like Garcia, get hurt. Their bodies bear the scars from cuts and other on-the-job injuries.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626534\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Labor advocates say they\u2019ve long heard whispers about child labor, but whenever they try to dig deeper, nobody wants to talk. Adult factory workers at some facilities say they routinely encounter children on their shifts. And teachers say they have had students who have gotten injured at work and were too afraid of getting in trouble to seek help.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626588\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Meanwhile, the government agencies charged with enforcing child labor laws don\u2019t look for violations, though some officials say they aren\u2019t surprised to hear it\u2019s happening. Instead, those agencies wait for complaints to come to them, and they almost never do.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"5.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6626600\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The companies benefit from the silence. It\u2019s an open secret no one wants exposed, least of all the teenagers doing the work.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4131\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4131\" class=\"wp-image-4131 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201119-shadows-group-photo-3.jpg\" alt=\"immigrant, teens, factories, Chicago, child, labor\" width=\"1200\" height=\"899\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4131\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The shadows of Guatemalan teenagers as they pose for a group photo at a recent weekend soccer game. Sebasti\u00e1n Hidalgo for ProPublica<\/p><\/div>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6635867\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Before they disappeared into crowded assembly lines, the young Guatemalan immigrants in Bensenville arrived in the United States as part of a new wave of young Central American asylum-seekers who have captured the nation\u2019s attention in recent years.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636270\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Many of them passed through the federal network of shelters for unaccompanied immigrant minors that came under scrutiny in 2018 during the Trump administration\u2019s policy of separating children from their parents. As they waited weeks or months to be released to sponsors, they grew anxious about their mounting immigration debts, desperate to get out and work so their relatives back home didn\u2019t suffer the consequences of a loan default.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636350\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cHonestly, I think almost everyone in the system knows that most of the teens are coming to work and send money back home,\u201d said Maria Woltjen, executive director and founder of the Young Center for Immigrant Children\u2019s Rights, a national organization that advocates for immigrant children in court. \u201cThey want to help their parents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636387\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">But whether they stayed in a shelter in Florida or California or Illinois, the teens heard similar warnings from the staff: They had to enroll in school and stay out of trouble. The immigration judges who would decide their cases, they were told, didn\u2019t want to hear that they were working.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636401\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cThey would ask you: \u2018Who are you going to live with? Is he going to support you financially?\u2019\u201d said one 19-year-old who spent nearly six months at a shelter in New York before a family friend in Bensenville agreed to take him in. \u201cAnd you say yes. \u2018Are they going to be responsible for you?\u2019 And you say yes. \u2018Are they going to take you to school?\u2019 And you say yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636437\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia heard this, too, at the shelter in Arizona where he spent about six weeks after letting himself get caught by agents at the U.S.-Mexico border. He knew he wasn\u2019t supposed to work, but he also knew he had no choice. \u201cI had nobody here who could support me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636452\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He was 15 and he had debts to pay, starting with the roughly $3,000 he owed for the \u201ccoyote\u201d who guided him across Mexico from Guatemala. To finance the trip, his parents had taken out a bank loan, using their house as collateral. If he didn\u2019t repay it, the family could lose its home.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636486\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia made the trek north in the spring of 2018 to escape the street gangs and poverty of Huehuetenango, the capital city of the western state of the same name.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636518\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">A slender, shy boy with an easy smile, Garcia didn\u2019t like to imagine his future in Guatemala. Other boys his age had already quit school, unable to afford the fees, and worked full time. Even if Garcia finished high school, he\u2019d likely work in construction for the rest of his life, like his father. On weekends and during breaks from school, he had a job as a bricklayer\u2019s assistant. He could earn about 350 quetzales, or around $45 in today\u2019s dollars, for six days of work . It wasn\u2019t much, but usually enough to cover school fees and books. His parents couldn\u2019t always afford to help.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"7.9\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636567\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cYou feel guilty about it,\u201d said his mother, Juana, a restaurant cook in Huehuetenango who irons clothes and washes laundry on the side for extra money. \u201cHow I wish I had a job that paid me enough so that I could fulfill my children\u2019s dreams, so they can get an education and a good career. But no matter how much you do, you just never make enough money here to help them get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636667\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">For years, children and families had been fleeing Guatemala\u2019s impoverished highlands as word spread that it was easy for minors \u2014 or adults accompanied by a child \u2014 to get into the U.S. and seek asylum. From 2012 to last year, the number of Guatemalans apprehended at the border jumped from some 34,000 to more than 264,000, according to\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/assets\/documents\/2020-Jan\/U.S.%20Border%20Patrol%20Nationwide%20Apprehensions%20by%20Citizenship%20and%20Sector%20%28FY2007%20-%20FY%202019%29_1.pdf\">federal reports<\/a><\/span>. Of those apprehended last year,\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/stats\/sw-border-migration\/usbp-sw-border-apprehensions\">about 80%<\/a><\/span>\u00a0were families or children traveling alone.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6636951\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The other teenagers who would eventually settle in Bensenville left for all sorts of reasons: One said his father beat him when he drank, burned his hand against a hot motorcycle engine, then threw him out of the house; another said he feared being physically attacked because he is gay; others said they came to join parents who\u2019d immigrated years before.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637001\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">For Garcia, immigrating meant the possibility of safety, a high school diploma and perhaps even attending college and studying to become an architect, all while earning dollars to send home to his family. He told his parents he wanted to come. His mother pleaded with Garcia, the youngest of three, not to leave her side. But his father, who\u2019d spent some time in the U.S. when Garcia was much younger, said he could go.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637050\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The journey can be traumatic, even violent. But Garcia made it unscathed as he rode buses and walked long stretches through Mexico. Within days of turning himself into agents at the border, he had arrived at the shelter in Phoenix where staff verified his relationship with a maternal aunt in Bensenville who had agreed to receive him. Through Garcia, his aunt declined to speak with ProPublica for this story.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637668\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Sponsors are supposed to guarantee they can care for the children, including providing financial support and appropriate living arrangements, according to the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which oversees the shelter program. They usually must pay for the minors\u2019 travel from the shelters to their homes. They are not allowed to require a child to work to repay his or his family\u2019s debt, or charge for room and board.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637716\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Shelter staff are supposed to call to check on the children 30 days after their release to ensure they are still living their sponsor, safe, in school and aware of coming court dates. The monitoring typically ends there.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637733\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">But sponsors, particularly those who are not immediate family, often ask minors to repay them for the travel costs, plus a share of rent and other bills. Sometimes they charge an additional fee that can run $500 or more. For the teens, it\u2019s a fair exchange; they can see that their relatives are scraping by, often in cramped housing and working multiple jobs.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637750\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia\u2019s aunt, who had immigrated years earlier with her family, was reluctant to take him in. \u201cIt\u2019s too hard here,\u201d Juana recalled her sister\u2019s explanation. \u201cYou have to work so much here, and there are so many challenges, and he is far too young.\u201d At Garcia\u2019s insistence, his mother asked again. \u201cI don\u2019t have anybody else to turn to but you,\u201d she implored. \u201cPlease help us so that he can be there and with his own family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"9.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637766\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Eventually her sister relented, but she made clear that she couldn\u2019t afford another mouth to feed. Her own remittances were already supporting Garcia\u2019s grandmother back home. If he came, Garcia would have to work to pay his share of the expenses. He readily agreed.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6637882\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Within a week of arriving, Garcia accompanied his aunt and uncle to the factory where they worked making auto parts. He got hired on a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift, cleaning newly made screws and bolts with an air blow gun. Workers wore safety goggles to protect their eyes from the shards of metal that blew in their faces. It was a dirty job. \u201cI didn\u2019t like it, working with so many oily parts,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd it was dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6659756\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia was not directly employed by the factory. Instead, he got the job through an \u201coficina<em>,<\/em>\u201d the word Spanish-speaking immigrants use to describe the dozens of temporary staffing agencies that employ hundreds of thousands of workers in Illinois. In some cases, the teens interviewed by ProPublica \u2014 all but one of them male \u2014 say they don\u2019t even know the name of the staffing agency that employs them; it\u2019s just the place where someone told them they could find work.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6659839\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">In recent decades, American factories have increasingly turned to temp agencies to fill their jobs. The agencies offer staffing flexibility and can help shield companies from legal issues surrounding employees\u2019 questionable immigration status or workers\u2019 compensation claims because they are the direct employer. ProPublica has\u00a0<span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/series\/temp-land\">reported extensively<\/a><\/span>\u00a0on injuries and exploitation tied to temp work. Some agencies actively recruit immigrants; over the past few months, at least two temp agencies dotted the Bensenville apartment complex with lawn signs advertising jobs, including one that offered a $200 bonus after four weeks of work.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6659874\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">By the teenagers\u2019 accounts, age rarely seems to come up when they try to get hired.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6659906\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Ramos was 14 and had just finished eighth grade when he got his first job in the summer of 2018. He didn\u2019t feel the same pressure as some of the other teens at the apartment complex to pay off immigration debts or help with the rent. That\u2019s because he had come with his mother and younger siblings the previous fall to join their father, who had immigrated to the U.S. years earlier.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6659954\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">But at night, Ramos saw his father return home from work exhausted after back-to-back shifts at two factories. \u201cEven on the weekends he was tired. He was always sleeping,\u201d said Ramos, a wiry teen with curly hair. \u201cI told him I wanted to help out. He\u2019d say: \u2018No. I want you to study.\u2019 But I kept insisting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660005\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">One afternoon as he walked home from the bus stop after summer school, Ramos got a call from another boy who lived at the apartment complex about job openings at a candy packaging plant. \u201cI came running home and told my mom,\u201d he recalled. \u201cShe gave me the OK and packed me a lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660056\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Within an hour, he was learning handwashing and hairnet protocols at the plant. He began working that day, grabbing boxes of packaged sour candies as they whipped down an assembly line and stacking them onto wooden pallets.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660174\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">No one asked his age, he said. \u201cThey asked if I was in school,\u201d Ramos recalled. \u201cI said yes. And they said that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.9\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660239\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Just two of the 15 young people interviewed for this story said their age had ever interfered with their attempts to get hired, and even then, they ultimately found jobs.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.10\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660321\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">One teen said an older cousin took him to a temp agency office shortly after he arrived from Guatemala in 2014. He was 15, but his ID said he was 21. It did not convince agency staff. His cousin stepped in and implored: \u201cYou know why we come to this country. &#8230; We come here to work.\u201d The agency, the teen said, placed him in a factory job.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"11.11\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660388\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Another adolescent, Miguel, was also 15 when he tried to get a job using an ID that said he was 19. He said employees at the agency scoffed: \u201cThey saw how short I was and my little boy\u2019s face and told me I can\u2019t work.\u201d Dejected, Miguel returned to the complex and told a friend what had happened. The boy, who was 14, said there were openings at the metal recycling facility where he worked with his mother. Within days, Miguel had a job there.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4128\" style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4128\" class=\"wp-image-4128 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201119-foreman_a-4.jpg\" alt=\"immigrant, teens, factories, Chicago, child, labor\" width=\"713\" height=\"1200\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4128\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaby Hurtado-Ramos for ProPublica<\/p><\/div>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6660587\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">At his age, Miguel should have been in school, though he wouldn\u2019t enroll for several more months. Federal law limits children of this age to working a maximum of three hours on school days and eight hours on Saturdays or Sundays, and it prohibits them from working overnight. There are also strict limits on the type of work children who are 14 or 15 can perform; employment in a metal recycling facility is not permitted, for instance. And yet there he was, working 12-hour, overnight shifts, often six days a week.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6661039\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Mark Denzler, president and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers\u2019 Association, said in a statement that staffing agencies are considered the employer of record and \u201care required by law to properly vet job candidates including verification for employment.\u201d He said his group \u201cstrongly encourages all manufacturers and employers to abide by all federal and state laws especially as it applies to child labor laws. We do not condone violations of these laws.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6661105\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Dan Shomon, a lobbyist for the Staffing Services Association of Illinois, which represents some staffing agencies, declined to speak about how agencies ensure their workers aren\u2019t underage but said the companies he works with \u201cfollow dozens and hundreds\u201d of federal and state regulations.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6673897\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cOur goal as an association is to get people to work and treat people well because that makes us good employers and we need to find people all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cSo it doesn\u2019t benefit us to be a shoddy employer but a good employer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6673924\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Miguel had no complaints about the metal recycling facility; he was grateful to have the job. But it was hard work, scrubbing scraps of metal in hot cleaning chemicals. Sometimes, chemicals splashed on him and burned his forearms. He said he got used to it. \u201cEvery day, different kinds of metal would come in,\u201d said Miguel, who is now 18 and a high school senior. \u201cYou had to scrub them hard. The boss yelled a lot if you didn\u2019t do it right. &#8230; Within a week, I got the hang of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6673973\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Until this summer, when they moved to a larger rental home, Miguel and his father lived for almost three years in a two-bedroom apartment at the Bensenville complex along with 11 other relatives and family friends, sharing expenses to save money. Miguel and his father slept on blankets on the living room floor, alongside two other men and their small children. Sometimes, he\u2019d awaken to see cockroaches scurrying by.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674025\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cThe truth is, it was rough to see the kids like that, sleeping on the floor,\u201d said Miguel, a laid-back teen with a pierced ear, tattoos and dreams of becoming a professional soccer player. \u201cI thought, well, I\u2019m old now, I can get used to this. But not them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674057\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">While his father took care of the rent and other bills, Miguel sent most of the $600 or so he made each week to his mother and three sisters in Guatemala. He thought most often of his youngest sister, just 6 now, when he sent the money.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"13.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674091\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cI want my little sister to go to school, to get a diploma one day,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want her to go through what I have.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4129\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4129\" class=\"wp-image-4129 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201119-handvignettes_a-5.jpg\" alt=\"immigrant, teens, factories, Chicago, child, labor\" width=\"1200\" height=\"475\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4129\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaby Hurtado-Ramos for ProPublica<\/p><\/div>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674441\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">A cluster of three-story brick buildings near an industrial zone and golf course, the Bensenville apartment complex houses so many people from the same region of Guatemala that some residents call it \u201cLittle Huehue,\u201d for Huehuetenango.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674492\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Waves of immigrants have joined friends and relatives who told them that it was a convenient place to live to find factory and warehouse work. A few blocks away sits a strip mall with a Guatemalan restaurant, stores that offer currency exchange and parcel delivery services, and a temporary staffing agency.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674525\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The largely self-contained world of the apartment complex feeds into a school district in Elmhurst, a more affluent city just south of Bensenville. York Community High School can be a culture shock for the teens: Almost three-quarters of the students are white, and just 5% study English as a second language.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6674588\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Miguel and the others got lost in the massive brick school building, which is unlike anything they had seen back home. And unlike the complex or factories where most everybody speaks Spanish, here they struggled to make sense of what was being said in English. They stuck together, rarely interacting with the white, non-Latino students with whom they took few classes, or even other more Americanized Latino students.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6675842\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">In some ways, Miguel is one of the lucky Guatemalan students at York because his father can support him financially, allowing him to take fewer or shorter shifts during the school year to focus on his studies and even play for the soccer team. This fall he stopped working to try to improve his grades. But there have been periods when he\u2019s had to prioritize work.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6675874\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He stopped attending classes for several weeks last year when he thought his mother might need expensive medical treatment in Guatemala, and again when his father wound up briefly detained in immigration custody. At those times, he worked back-to-back shifts to earn additional money, he said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6675906\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Something similar happened to Ramos. This spring, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the factory where his father worked, Ramos became the household\u2019s sole breadwinner for a few months, working at a plant that packages meat. When school started again this fall, he switched to a part-time shift at a book packaging facility; his 15-year-old sister recently joined him.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6675939\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Their mother, Lucy, said she is grateful for the money they bring in but reminds them that she wants them to get an education. When she was a child, growing up in Guatemala, she couldn\u2019t attend school herself because she had to work as a farmhand. Her children are now teaching her to write her name and basic math. \u201cThey are my treasures,\u201d Lucy said. \u201cI want them to study so they can get ahead in life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6675976\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia, on the other hand, has always had to prioritize work because he has to pay his own way. After a month at the auto parts factory, he found a new job cleaning food-processing machinery where he could work a shorter shift, typically 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. But once he enrolled in school, he slept just three, maybe four hours each afternoon.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.9\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6676006\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He couldn\u2019t stay awake in class. Most teachers were understanding, he said, but one teacher\u2019s reprimands still bother him. Garcia tried to explain to the teacher, in his limited English, why he was so tired. \u201cThat\u2019s not my problem,\u201d he remembers her saying. \u201cI don\u2019t know why you\u2019re working and not focusing on school.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.10\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6676043\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Figuring out how to respond to these students\u2019 needs has been a challenge, said Lorenzo Rubio, who heads York\u2019s world language department. And it\u2019s not just because the students are exhausted; many have significant gaps in their education, meaning they are further behind their classmates in core subjects like math and science.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"15.11\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6676275\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">When Rubio started his teaching career at York nine years ago, there was just one recently arrived Guatemalan student in the school\u2019s English learners, or EL, program, he recalled. As immigraton from Central America surged, the number of Guatemalan students at York increased \u201cto eight, then 15, then 30,\u201d Rubio said. Last school year, 79 Guatemalan-born students were registered at York, according to state records.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4130\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4130\" class=\"wp-image-4130 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201119-lorenzo-rubio-1.jpg\" alt=\"immigrant, teens, factories, Chicago, child, labor\" width=\"1200\" height=\"899\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4130\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lorenzo Rubio, the head of York Community High School\u2019s world language department. Sebasti\u00e1n Hidalgo for ProPublica<\/p><\/div>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6676575\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">In response to the influx, York expanded its EL program and hired more teachers, including some who now help teach popular electives like auto mechanics. That makes it easier for the Guatemalan students to take a greater variety of classes and meet students outside the program.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6676644\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Still, only 57% of students learning English at York graduate within four years, according to state records from the 2018-2019 school year. Where York struggles most is addressing the needs of the students who work overnight, Rubio said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6676923\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Educators in several nearby districts say that they, too, are adapting to an influx of recent Central American arrivals who work overnight shifts in factories, restaurants and hotels. At Fenton High School, just a few miles from York, most of the 80 or so students learning English are from Guatemala and perhaps half work in factories, said Michelle Rodriguez, who coordinates the English as a second language program.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690094\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Now that her school has shifted to remote learning in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Rodriguez sometimes sees students log in from factory breakrooms. She said it\u2019s been hard to keep them engaged online. But even before the pandemic, she knew many students were tempted to quit school to work full time. \u201cWe have, say, three years with the student,\u201d she said. \u201cLet\u2019s try to make it that in these three years we give them the best education that we can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690227\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The teens can be reluctant to talk about work, even to the adults at school they trust. Becky Morales, an EL teacher at York, is one of those adults. When in-person classes were held before the pandemic, she would allow students to nap during lunch if they stayed awake during math or science. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have the basics of food and sleep and if you\u2019re not loved,\u201d she said, \u201cyou\u2019re not going to be able to learn anything.\u201d (Classes have been held in person intermittently this school year because of the pandemic.)<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690478\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">By chance one day last winter, she noticed that Garcia\u2019s hand was swollen, wrapped in gauze and caked in dried blood. Morales pulled him aside and he told her what happened. In the middle of his shift the night before, he said, he cut a knuckle on his left hand with the high-pressure washer he used to clean machinery. A strong burst of water dug into his hand, tearing open his rubber glove and slicing the skin. He thought he could see the bone.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690526\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He said he went to a supervisor and asked to be taken to a clinic. The supervisor asked if he had a \u201cgood Social Security number,\u201d meaning he had a work permit. \u201cI didn\u2019t,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cSo they didn\u2019t take me.\u201d The supervisor found some gauze and wrapped his hand, and Garcia finished his shift.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"17.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690560\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">At school, Morales found a first-aid kit, cleaned him up and sent him to the nurse\u2019s office. When the nurse asked what had happened, Garcia said he\u2019d cut himself with a kitchen knife. The nurse, he said, told him the cut was too deep to be from a knife and asked again. \u201cAfter that I pretended I didn\u2019t understand what she was saying,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cThat I didn\u2019t understand English.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690592\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He was afraid that if he admitted he got hurt on the job, he\u2019d get in trouble for using a fake ID or his aunt would go to jail for allowing him to work. Garcia never sought additional medical care. Almost a year later, he said the bone still feels dislocated.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690642\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Three other teens interviewed by ProPublica said they\u2019d been injured at work. Two were already 18 when they got hurt, though both had worked since they were 16 in jobs that, under federal law, should have been off limits because they are considered hazardous. One fractured his heel when a forklift he was pulling slid over his foot at a meatpacking plant. The other cut his thumb with a knife at a packaging facility; a supervisor took him to an urgent care facility to get stitches.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690695\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Miguel cut the palm of his left hand with a sharp piece of metal at the recycling facility during a shift earlier this year, when he was 17. The wound was deep, about 2 inches across. He was scared but told nobody. Later, when he got home, he washed and bandaged the wound. The next day he wore long sleeves to work, tucking his hurt hand inside so nobody would ask questions. \u201cWhat if that caused them to shut down or ask about my age?\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s better to not say anything.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690726\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Unlike in cases of suspected child abuse, state labor officials said they were unaware of any mandatory reporting for child labor violations. When asked if she considered reporting the incident involving Garcia to authorities, Morales paused. It\u2019s a question she\u2019s thought about a lot.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690778\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cThat\u2019s really hard. Who am I supposed to tell? I don\u2019t even know,\u201d she said. \u201cWe know they\u2019re doing it to support themselves and don\u2019t want them to not be able to support themselves. If I went to a student and said, \u2018You need to stop working because it\u2019s dangerous,\u2019 he would potentially drop out of school and keep working.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"19.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6690794\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cLet\u2019s say I would make a complaint to the state of Illinois \u2026 then all these kids could lose their jobs. Then what happens? I feel like I would put them in a worse situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4126\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4126\" class=\"wp-image-4126 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201119-becky-morales-2.jpg\" alt=\"immigrant, teens, factories, Chicago\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4126\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Becky Morales, an EL teacher at York, at one of the students\u2019 weekend soccer games. Sebasti\u00e1n Hidalgo for ProPublica<\/p><\/div>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6692760\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">By and large, labor departments are complaint-based systems. If nobody complains, there is rarely proactive investigation or enforcement.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6692778\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Federal records show child labor sanctions against just one Illinois factory over the past five years, and none involving temp agencies. And there have been no such complaints filed with the Illinois Department of Labor over the same period.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696312\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The state Labor Department conducts random audits of employers\u2019 payroll and other records, but child labor violations are unlikely to be uncovered because the audits are based on paperwork, and minors typically use fake IDs. Department officials say staff members routinely meet with community organizations and labor advocates who have more trusting relationships with vulnerable workers to learn whether other systemic issues are occurring but aren\u2019t being reported. But child labor in temp agencies or factories hasn\u2019t come up in those conversations, said Yolanda Carrillo, chief legal counsel at the state Labor Department.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696378\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">She and other state officials said they would take action if they knew where to look. \u201cIf you don\u2019t know where it\u2019s happening, who it\u2019s happening to, anywhere to start your investigation, it\u2019s hard to be able to tackle the issue as a whole,\u201d Carrillo said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not for a lack of willingness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696512\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Similarly, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, whose office has a workplace rights bureau and has brought several lawsuits against temp agencies in recent years, said in a statement that his office was willing to \u201cact expeditiously\u201d in partnership with other agencies to ensure the safety of children and businesses\u2019 compliance with child labor laws. But the office has never received a complaint.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696745\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">One possible reason the issue hasn\u2019t surfaced is that the Guatemalan youths came to the U.S. recently and are disconnected from the organizations that traditionally serve Spanish-speaking immigrants, most of whom are Mexican. Guatemalans who primarily speak one of the country\u2019s many indigenous Mayan languages are even more isolated.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696829\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Still, Carrillo \u2014 like nearly every labor advocate, researcher, consular official, immigration attorney and others interviewed for this story \u2014 was not surprised to learn about the experiences of the young Guatemalans. Before joining the Labor Department last year, she\u2019d worked for legal organizations that serve low-wage workers, including immigrants, on labor-related issues.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696859\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cIt\u2019s not shocking to me,\u201d Carrillo said. \u201cThe problem is people don\u2019t share. You [as a reporter] may be able to go into a conversation and have people share information with you. \u2026 I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s impossible, but it\u2019s a lot harder for an agency to go in and have people share information.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696875\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">But there have been clues in recent years that children and adolescents are working in suburban Chicago factories.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.9\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696913\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Last month, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office in Chicago charged a Guatemalan couple in Aurora, another western suburb, with forced labor for allegedly making a girl, who was either 16 or 17, work to pay off smuggling debts, according to the indictment. At least one of the jobs, obtained through a staffing agency, was at a factory and required her to be 18.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.10\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6696978\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">And in a case that generated publicity last year, authorities found a 15-year-old Guatemalan girl working through a staffing agency at a food-processing facility in Romeoville, also in the western suburbs. She was among more than two dozen people living in the home of a woman to whom they allegedly owed immigration debts, in addition to rent and other expenses. The woman has since pleaded guilty to federal forced labor and other charges and is awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.11\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697031\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">In neither case did the authorities prosecute the staffing agencies that employed the minors or the factories that, knowingly or not, benefited from their labor. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office declined to comment as the cases remain ongoing.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"21.12\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697229\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Those cases focused on the individuals involved and not the broader system that allows child labor to be used. It\u2019s a similar approach when labor departments do proactive child labor investigations, said Janice Fine, a labor professor and researcher at Rutgers who recently surveyed state labor departments about how they enforce labor law. (Illinois was not part of this survey.)<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697329\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The strategy commonly employed to respond to child labor \u2014 investigators doing sweeps at businesses where minors were likely to be employed, like carnivals in the summertime or restaurants \u2014 isn\u2019t an effective long-term fix, she said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697412\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cThey\u2019re not thinking, \u2018What\u2019s driving child labor and how do we take a systemic approach to taking it on and figure out in this industry what\u2019s driving it, who are the key actors, who are the key employers and what kinds of employment arrangements are they taking advantage of to engage in this kind of activity?\u2019\u201d Fine said. \u201cThe question of how do you actually make it a long-term structural shift is what they\u2019re not solving for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697446\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The problem is larger than the question of enforcement; it\u2019s a reflection of the intractable poverty in the countries that send migrants of all ages here and the pull of an American labor market eager to hire them.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697478\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cThe bottom line is if you interfere with the situation, that child is still going to work,\u201d said Woltjen of the Young Center. \u201cIf something happens and he gets scared that he\u2019s going to be turned over to the authorities, he\u2019s going to run and he\u2019s not going to come back to school and he\u2019s still going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697530\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Over the 17 years she has worked with unaccompanied immigrant children, she and her staff have seen many minors from China to Central America who arrive in this country with a personal sense of duty to work to repay their smuggling debts and send home remittances. \u201cThey\u2019re determined to do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697562\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The young people in Bensenville do not feel exploited. They are not asking to be rescued. They want to keep working to help their families in Guatemala and contribute to the households where they live.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697612\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">\u201cFor those of us from countries where there is more poverty, there is a stronger need to work,\u201d Garcia said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have a choice, between just going to school or just working. So we have to do both. Back home, other kids quit school altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6697645\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">At least here, he said, he is getting an education.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6701660\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Billy A. Mu\u00f1oz Miranda, the consul general for Guatemala in Chicago, knows what\u2019s happening with his young compatriots in Bensenville and across the country. In a previous stint as the consul in Southern California, he said, he knew of teens who worked late-night shifts at restaurants and factories, then showed up to school only to fall asleep in class.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.9\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6701696\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">As a consular official, he is responsible for protecting Guatemalans here, and he doesn\u2019t believe minors should be working factory jobs, earning minimum wages, in sometimes dangerous conditions. But no one has ever complained to the consulate about the practice, he said, including the teenagers and their families. \u201cThey don\u2019t see this as a crime,\u201d he said. \u201cThey see this as a source of income.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"23.10\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6701709\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">On a personal level, he admires how hard they work. \u201cThanks to their labor and work and efforts they are giving stability and social peace for Guatemala,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd without us knowing it they have sacrificed their childhoods for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.0\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6702264\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">When you talk to the young men who live at the apartment complex, they sound like adults. Responsible. Matter of fact. Stoic. But there are moments that remind you that they are still boys. They say they miss their mothers. They play video games on their cellphones. And, almost without exception, they adore soccer, the Barcelona \u201cfutbol\u201d club and superstar Lionel Messi.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.1\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705279\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Few of them could imagine playing for the team at York; with school and work, they have no time for extracurricular activities. But on a cold, rainy Sunday morning in September, about a dozen gathered for a game at a park not far from the apartment complex. Several had clocked out of their factory jobs only a few hours earlier. Yet they seemed full of energy. They laughed, teased each other and passed a ball around as they warmed up.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.2\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705315\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Morales, the York teacher, stood on the sidelines, wet and shivering. She started organizing these games last fall to connect with her students and create an opportunity for them to have fun outside of work and school. She calls them \u201cmis hijitos,\u201d or \u201cmy little sons,\u201d and takes her own children to the weekend games or on the visits she makes to the complex to deliver groceries from the local food pantry. At the games, she makes a point to call out each boy\u2019s name at least once.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.3\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705362\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">The games reflect the two worlds the boys inhabit, one by day and the other at night. Sometimes, they might play against the men they work alongside on factory floors. Other days they face a suburban high school soccer team. It\u2019s uncertain where they will ultimately land: growing into adulthood and continuing to work in the factories, or finishing school and going to college.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.4\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705395\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Several of the Guatemalan teens say they\u2019d like to attend college one day, but few have any clear sense of how that might happen. Their future in this country is uncertain. Most have already been waiting for years as their asylum cases play out in a massively backlogged court system. Their cases have seen additional delays with shifting federal priorities, the retirements of judges and, now, the coronavirus pandemic. They know they may be deported one day.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.5\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705429\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia doesn\u2019t like to imagine a life back in Guatemala. \u201cLife is a little harder there,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes there\u2019s work. Sometimes there isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.6\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705463\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He said he would like to go to college here in the U.S. He\u2019s been drawn to architecture since he was a boy in Guatemala, because of a cousin back home who works in that field. \u201cI\u2019ve always liked to draw,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019m good at math.\u201d He doesn\u2019t know how he\u2019d pay tuition. He\u2019s seen friends graduate from high school and say they\u2019ll work a factory job for a year or two to save money and enroll in college. \u201cNot a lot of them are able to do it,\u201d he said. \u201cThey stay working in a factory.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.7\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705563\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">Garcia said he\u2019d rather try to get scholarships, whether through joining the military or getting his grades up and qualifying for merit aid. For most of his time here, his work schedule has made learning and staying focused on class nearly impossible, and his grades have suffered. Earlier this year, he left the factory job and tried working fewer hours at a restaurant so he\u2019d have more time to sleep. But when the pandemic struck this spring, the restaurant closed. At the same time, York shifted to remote learning and shorter school days. Garcia couldn\u2019t take advantage of the extra time to study; he needed money.<\/p>\n<p data-pp-blocktype=\"copy\" data-pp-id=\"25.8\" data-gtm-vis-first-on-screen-452638_192=\"6705629\" data-gtm-vis-total-visible-time-452638_192=\"100\" data-gtm-vis-has-fired-452638_192=\"1\">He returned to the overnight shift.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_4127\" style=\"width: 1210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4127\" class=\"wp-image-4127 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/borderlessmag.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/20201119-factorynight_moon-6.jpg\" alt=\"immigrant, teens, factories, Chicago\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1083\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4127\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gaby Hurtado-Ramos for ProPublica<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Durante el d\u00eda, los adolescentes inmigrantes van al instituto. Por la noche, trabajan en f\u00e1bricas para pagar las deudas a los contrabandistas y enviar dinero a la familia. A las autoridades no les sorprende el trabajo infantil. Tampoco hacen mucho al respecto.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":4134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[325,136,324],"tags":[],"coauthors":[285],"class_list":{"0":"post-4124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environmentandhealth","8":"category-labor","9":"category-visuals"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Inside the Lives of Immigrant Teens Working Dangerous Night Shifts in Suburban Factories &#8211; Borderless Magazine NFP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"During the day, immigrant teenagers attend high school. At night, they work in factories to pay debts to smugglers and send money to family. The authorities aren\u2019t surprised by child labor. 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