Senator Josh Hawley called for Tyson Foods to be prosecuted for using child labor in their factories. Hawley made the statement on an X post while sharing a video of him questioning Labor Secretary nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer.

During the confirmation hearing, Hawley said. “We know from the investigations done by the New York Times and others that they have huge numbers of child labor in their supply chains,” Hawley added. “In their factories they are putting children who are been trafficked here to work…Will you go after companies like Tyson and anyone else who would violate our labor laws and exploit children while they are firing American workers?”

Chavez-DeRemer responded, “Yes. Child labor should not be accepted by anybody in America, and The Department of Labor has the enforcement capability to double down if they knowingly are breaking the law and exploiting children in their factories.”

Hawley made specific mention of missing migrant children who came across the border without being accompanied by an adult. Hawley said, “520,000 of them to be precise, unaccompanied children trafficked across the border, hundreds of thousands of them lost and now being exploited by companies like Tysons Food.”

The HighWire reported about the unaccompanied children program and spoke with whistleblower Tara Rodas. She said the program has enabled the trafficking of children into the United States. Rodas explained that there was no vetting process for the sponsors, and the children were often sent to the border by human traffickers with the promise of higher-paying jobs in the United States.

Fact checks have referred to the missing children number as misleading because DHS has not expressly “declared them to be missing.” Thirty-two thousand children failed to appear for their immigration hearings and ICE, at the time of the report, had not yet filed paperwork to initiate deportation proceedings for 291,000 children who entered the country unaccompanied from 2019 to 2023. Rodas and others have suggested that the number of missing children could be much higher, but it is unclear how Hawley came up with the number 520,000. While the agency did not declare the children missing, they do not know where they are or how to contact them.

In 2023, Packers Sanitation Services Inc., based out of Kieler, Wisconsin paid a $1.5 million penalty for employing over 100 children in hazardous positions at meatpacking plants, including Tyson, JBS, and Cargill. The investigation determined Tyson was not in violation of labor violations.

The Department of Labor initiated the investigation after a report by New York Times Magazine found minors as young as 13 working overnight shifts at a Perdue slaughterhouse while using “acid and pressure hoses to scour blood, grease, and feathers from industrial machines.”

Court documents unsealed in October 2024 allege children as young as 11 years old working overnight shifts at Tyson’s Green Forest, Arkansas plant. The DOL investigation was launched in July 2024 after the department received tips from a teacher and parent about minors working overnight shifts. DOL investigators photographed individuals who appeared to be children entering and leaving the Green Forest plant. The active investigation includes Tyson’s Rogers plant and Springdale headquarters.

The Department of Labor statistics show a 69% increase in the number of children illegally employed across the nation since 2018. The department has over 600 active child labor investigations. Between October 1, 2022 and July 20, 2023, the DOL concluded 765 child labor investigations involving 4,474 children. The DOL assessed employers more than $6.6 million in penalties.

Both Tyson and Perdue have spoken out against child labor and state they have policies preventing minors from working in their slaughterhouses.

Tyson Foods said, “To be clear, we do not allow the employment of anyone under the age of 18 in any of our facilities, and we do not facilitate, excuse, or in any other way participate in the use of child labor.”

Perdue spokesperson Andrea Staub told CNN in September 2023 that they have “strict, long-standing policies” to “prevent minors from working hazardous jobs in violation of the law.” She also said sanitation contractors are held to the same standards.

Tyson was federally indicted in 2001 for a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented workers from Mexico to work in 15 U.S. plants. The company denied the charges and was later cleared in 2003 after claiming the company didn’t knowingly employ undocumented immigrants.

The HighWire reported in September about a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Working Group against Tyson Foods for alleged “greenwashing” with the company’s marketing of “climate-smart beef.” The HighWire also reported about the Farm Credit Scandal in which the Farm Credit Bureau allegedly extorted money from farmers to benefit large agricultural companies, including Tyson.