Episode Details

Sandie is joined by Matthew Soerens from World Relief to discuss a recent New York Times investigation that revealed unaccompanied children arriving at U.S. borders are being exploited for labor. They discuss the findings of the report, the U.S. process to place children, and the Department of Labor’s response.

Matthew Soerens

Matthew Soerens is the US Director of Church Mobilization for World Relief, where he helps evangelical churches to understand the realities of refugees and immigration and to respond in ways guided by biblical values. He also serves as the National Coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition that advocates for immigration reforms consistent with biblical values. Matthew previously served as a Department of Justice-accredited legal counselor at World Relief’s local office in Wheaton, Illinois and, before that, with World Relief’s partner organization in Managua, Nicaragua. He’s also the co-author of Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis.

Key Points

• Immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are vulnerable to human trafficking, especially labor trafficking, because they are in a foreign country and often come with vulnerabilities.
• The Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act provides basic protections for unaccompanied minors at the U.S. border who are identified is especially vulnerable to human trafficking.
• Children are being exploited for labor in the U.S. through online enticement of vulnerable youth from other countries.
• As consumers, we all have a responsibility to hold companies accountable and demand enforcement from the federal government.

Resources

• World Relief
• Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S. | The New York Times
• More than 100 children illegally employed in hazardous jobs, federal investigation finds; food sanitation contractor pays $1.5M in penalties | U.S. Department of Labor (dol.gov)
• Evangelical Immigration Table
• Press Release: World Relief Urges Congress to Reject H.R. 29, Warns It Will Hinder Fight Against Human Trafficking and Harm Vulnerable Children

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Transcript

Sandra Morgan  00:00

This is episode 294, Combating Exploitative Child Labor in the U.S., with Matthew Soerens.

Production Credits  00:10

Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential.

Sandra Morgan  00:30

Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking pod