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A minor who passed away in a poultry plant mishap got the job with the identity of a 32-year-old, company confirmsNBC News is topping a yearlong examination of U.S. child labor with the documentary "Slaughterhouse Children," which includes new details on the death of Duvan Prez.
A 16-year-old worker who died after getting sucked into equipment at a Mississippi poultry plant got the task using the identity of a 32-year-old guy, a brand-new discovery that highlights the ease with which migrant children are discovering work in an unsafe market, and the difficulties companies face in trying to assess their real ages.
Duvan Prez, who was hired to clean up at Mar-Jac Poultry in Hattiesburg, which provides chicken to companies like Chick-fil-A, died on July 14. Within hours of his death, concerns about his true age were raised by a regional Facebook news website, and he was soon identified to be 16.
It's illegal for minors to operate in slaughterhouses, which the Occupational Safety and Health Administration thinks about amongst the most perilous offices in the country.
Duvan Prez, 16, attended intermediate school in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, while working the graveyard shift at a nearby poultry plant.@fk0_xxz through Tiktok.
The number of kids working illegally has increased throughout all industries, according to the Labor Department, almost doubling because 2019. More than 800 kid labor examinations in 47 states are continuous throughout industries, according to the agency.
NBC News is topping a yearlong investigation into kid labor in America with a brand-new documentary called "Slaughterhouse Children," based on reporting in 2 countries and six states, lots of interviews and the evaluation of thousands of pages of public records, accident reports and internal business documents.
See more NBC News reporting on children working in slaughterhouses in the U.S.
Throughout research for the documentary, Mar-Jac confirmed to NBC News that Perez had actually used the identity of a male in his 30s.
Shown an image of the 16-year-old, Mar-Jac attorney Larry Stine said Perez did not look like a 32-year-old male. "But he may have looked 18," stated Stine, who has actually represented the Georgia-based company considering that the 1990s.
Mar-Jac blamed the hiring of the teenager on a staffing business that provides employees to the plant.
A truck hauling chickens moves into Mar-Jac Poultry. Laura Strickler/ NBC News.
Asked if the business was amazed to find out that Perez was 16, Stine said, "Yes, they were shocked, that I can inform you. They were surprised and somewhat horrified."
Prez's household did not respond to a request for discuss his use of a grownup's identity.
Stolen identities
At least nine times in the past three years, American citizens have actually complained to the Hattiesburg Police Department and in some cases to Mar-Jac that their identities were stolen and being used by Mar-Jac workers, according to cops reports acquired via public details requests.
Prez, from Guatemala, passed away while cleaning equipment at the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg. Duvan Prez through Facebook.
Someone informed authorities in 2021 that they attempted to request unemployment in Florida but were informed their identity was being utilized by a staff member at Mar-Jac. An authorities report prices quote the complainant's e-mail stating, "I called Mar-Jac poultry to alert them and was informed by [redacted], the HR manager that I couldn't do anything without an authorities report and he couldn't assist me in any way."
Another individual called regional cops in 2022 saying she was not able to get child care assistance in Texas since her identity was being utilized by a Mar-Jac employee." [Redacted] specified she's never ever lived outside of the state of Texas," the police report stated. "She contacted HR at Mar-Jac and was informed that they couldn't offer her any information and to contact the authorities department."
Mar-Jac stated it has examined its entire workforce and does not think that it is utilizing anybody under 18. Stine said the business is restricted in how much examination it can apply to the documents beyond the federal government's E-Verify system: "Under the method the guidelines are established, we're limited. They gave us this documentation, we can not check out it."
The Labor Department preserves that it depends on the companies to carry out due diligence when employing employees to figure out if they are lawfully old sufficient to do the job.
After Prez's death, the Labor Department released an examination into how Mar-Jac worked with a teen and a separate OSHA examination into the mishap itself. Both examinations stay ongoing.
In September, OSHA appealed to Mar-Jac employees in a news release to connect to the firm to discuss the circumstances around Prez's death, keeping in mind that federal law secures the rights of employees to take part in a Labor Department investigation.
The Department of Homeland Security is supporting the OSHA examination, according to a DHS spokesperson. Stine said, "Mar-Jac is unaware of any involvement by DHS."
In an email, Stine said, "Mar-Jac completely investigated the mishap and has actually not found any errors committed by its safety or human resources employees. It has learned numerous lessons from the mishap and has taken aggressive actions to prevent the event of another mishap or working with minor employees."
If a company is found to have actually violated child labor laws, the maximum fine is $15,138 per instance.
Asked if the potential fines affect how a company works, Stine said, "I think the promotion of having something like that is far even worse than the penalty. No one wishes to be seen to have actually been hiring a kid."
Prez was the 2nd person to pass away after getting entangled in equipment at the plant in the previous two years.
Prez's uncle Gildardo Prez informed Telemundo he was uninformed of the dangers of the task and might have spoken up if he had known. "Perhaps we would have avoided it, however we never knew if it was a hazardous task."
An agent for Chick-fil-A, which buys chicken from Mar-Jac, said in a statement, "We are examining our own treatments for investigation and response as we pursue the actions necessary to effectively hold all our suppliers to our high security standards."
A Mar-Jac employee who said they work lawfully for the company and asked to stay anonymous out of fear of losing their job said representatives of Chick-fil-A come and check out the plant. "Supervisors encourage us to please do the work well because in charges from Chick-fil-A will go through to check the work," the employee said.
Plant employees also get a voucher for a complimentary Chick-fil-A sandwich once a year, the worker said.
An enormous flow of boys and girls
In a year of reporting, practically all of the examples of child employees found at meat-processing plants throughout the country have originated from Guatemala.
During the past two years, more than 250,000 unaccompanied children have pertained to the U.S. Almost half of those minors are from Guatemala.
A number of these children come from rural, Indigenous towns where the human smuggler, referred to as a "coyote," is typically a community member, professionals state, and households dedicate to paying back countless dollars in order to get to the U.S.
A few of those kids have found job openings at slaughterhouses throughout the country. Some look young however are over 18. Other workers, seen in pictures taken by Labor Department detectives, clearly appear to be children.
Duvan Prez was from a little mountain village called Huispache in western Guatemala near the Mexican border.
NBC News and Telemundo went to Huispache to read more about the elements that press young people to leave the country. The migration of kids, including numerous taking a trip alone without their moms and dads, is having an impact.
Data gotten from Guatemala's Ministry of Education shows that more than 1,500 schools have closed in Guatemala in the previous 15 years.
The Ministry of Education has not responded to requests for comment as to why the closures are taking place, but one Guatemalan government agency notes the demand for education is reducing in part because kids are leaving for the U.S.
Estuardo Snchez, who works with UNICEF in Guatemala, stated the exodus of children in the last few years is substantial. "It's a massive flow of kids and girls who are leaving the nation," he said.
"Guatemala is losing its great group, that personnel, since the kids who leave are the bravest, the entrepreneurs."
Labor Department crackdown
Kid labor in the U.S. first became a fresh issue in late fall 2022 when the Labor Department revealed it had found more than 30 kids illegally working the night shift for a company that cleans the most significant slaughterhouses in America, Packers Sanitation Services Inc.
Ultimately the Labor Department discovered 102 kids working for PSSI at 13 places in 8 states.
A Labor Department private investigator photographed a kid who worked for Packers Sanitation Services Inc. cleaning a slaughterhouse in Grand Island, Neb. The subject has been blurred by the source.U.S. Department of Labor.
PSSI paid a $1.5 million civil penalty and consented to third-party tracking. The company keeps it did not intentionally work with kids. It said the only way minors could have been employed is if they utilized taken or phony identities to get the jobs.
The business also said it has a strong dedication to a zero-tolerance policy versus using anybody under the age of 18 and it has actually because "executed enhanced evaluating procedures and innovations" in its hiring practices.
Considering that the settlement with the federal government, PSSI has actually also set up a new CEO and employed its first-ever compliance officer.
Given that the allegations versus PSSI emerged, other companies have likewise come under scrutiny.
Tyson Foods, Perdue Farms, Hearthside Food Solutions and Gerber's Poultry in Ohio are also now under investigation by the Labor Department after it was declared that kids were working inside their facilities. The companies have actually stated in separate statements that they are complying with Labor Department and have stringent policies versus hiring anyone under 18.
Tyson Foods composed in a letter to senators who were examining child labor: "Tyson Foods is dedicated to compliance with all labor laws and holding those we work with to the greatest standards of accountability."
Perdue Farms stated in a public statement: "Underage labor has no place in our service. We are horrified by these recent claims as they are not representative of who we are as a company and what we mean."
A spokesperson for Hearthside Food Solutions indicated an editorial by the business following an examination by The New York Times that said in part: "When we ended up being conscious of the story, we took decisive action focused on rooting out what might have allowed underage employees worked with by our staffing companies to enter our facilities."
NBC News broke the story that FBI agents discovered more than two lots minors operating at the Gerber's Poultry plant in a midnight raid in October. The company stated that it is working together with federal authorities, adding: "We have official identity confirmation procedures in place and commit substantial resources to ensure that Gerber's Poultry employees and professionals are legally authorized to work."
What federal private investigators can't do is recuperate the months and years that migrant minors have invested in the job. Pastor Joel Tuchez of Dodge City, Kansas, stated the kids he's satisfied through his ministry who've worked in the meatpacking plants of Kansas were robbed of their youths. "You have to act like a grownup. You need to act like a grownup. You need to carry out like an adult. And if you screw up, you get dealt with like a grownup."
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