March6,2023
AndreaFlores InternationalMayanLeague (202)827-6673 info@mayanleague.org
EXPLOITEDINDIGENOUSMIGRANTCHILDRENINVISIBLEINPLAINSIGHT
Piscataway Nation Territory (Washington, D.C.) – The International Mayan League, the only Maya women and youth-ledhumanrightsorganizationintheUnitedStatesthatworkstosupport our relatives who are forcefully expelled from their homelands, express our outrage about the information in the recent investigative report, “Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.” written by Hannah Dreier, and published in New York Times on February25,2023.
The report highlights how thousands of unaccompanied migrant children – mostly from Guatemala – who have crossed the border, settled in the U.S., and been released by the Biden administration, end up working some of “the most punishing jobs in the country.” We are grateful for this criticalexposé butremainconcernedthatthearticledoesnotmentionthatmany of the minors interviewed are likely Indigenous Maya children who have fled Guatemala to the U.S. because of the history of war and genocide and U.S. intervention along with current structural inequality, discrimination, debilitatingpoverty,andclimatechange.Furthermore,these minors also experience systemic discrimination in their migration journey, at the United States/Mexico border, and clearlyintheinteriorU.S.Theseproblemshavebeenexacerbateddue to the global COVID-19 pandemic that has placed many in extreme conditions. However, this oppression is not new. Indigenous peoples have been subjected to more than 500 years of repressionandcolonialimposition.
Since the Donald Trump administration approved its zero-tolerance immigrationpolicyin2018, human rights violations against migrants have increased. The policy led to traumatic andillegal family separation, prolonged and arbitrary detention, children being placed in cages, excessive use of force, sexual abuse of thousands of women and children in detention centers, inadequate medical assessmentandcareresultingindeathsofMayachildrenandyouthsunderU.S.custody. Migrant families have also been denied due process and Indigenous language interpretation. Though the Joe Biden administration has sought to reverse some of these inhumane policies, humanrightsviolationscontinueaffectingthousandsofchildren,women,andfamilies.
As the New York Times article reports, to the problems mentioned above, we now add the violation of labor laws by companies that have illegally hired thousands of the unaccompanied minors that were released by the Biden administration in 2021. The labor exploitation these minors are facing, as one person in the article indicates, represents “indentured servitude” since the majority of these children work 12 hour day shifts and carryadultworkloads.Someofthem lack benefits which also has led to physical injuries, and even deaths in the workplace. Most alarming is thatover85,000childrenwhowerereleasedtoacquaintancesorevenstrangers,have simply vanished,theirwhereaboutsareunknown.Itisinexcusableandincomprehensiblethatthe
federal government knows these children are in the U.S., and thattheDepartmentofHealthand Human Services (DHHS) has failed them in their promises to “support them and protect them fromtraffickingorexploitation.”
The Biden administration and its immigration policy to dissuade people “not to come” to the United States, just like that of Trump, has also failed. As the New York Times indicates, the number of unaccompanied minors entering the United States climbed to a high of 130,000 in 2022. The Biden administration needs to stop supporting a corruptGuatemalangovernmentthat continues to depend on its foreign aid to support its military and police forces that have shown their allegiance to the elites and extractive industries that devastate our lands, rivers, and ways oflife.
The U.S. government and corporations have the blood of Indigenouspeoplesontheirhandsand must be held accountable. The loss of life detailed in this article confirms our worst fears of grave human rights violations and exploitation in deplorable working conditions for unaccompanied minors. As the International Mayan League has repeatedly conveyed through official statements to the Administration and reports to theUnitedNations,theU.S.government is failing its legalobligationsunderdomesticandinternationallawtoprotectthehumanrightsof all children, and in particular, Indigenous children. Any viable solutions to address this human rights crisis must include working directly with those affected by these grave human rights violations and with our peoples and communities. We must apply an Indigenous human rights framework that involves consultation with Maya and other Indigenous authorities and organizations in and out of Guatemala to find a way forward and justice for our families and communities.
Wedemandthat:
1) TheU.S.DepartmentofLaborconductathoroughinvestigationandprosecute the responsiblecompaniesandcontractorsviolatingChildLaborLaws;
2) TheDepartmentofHealthandHumanServices(DHHS),anditsOfficeofRefugee Resettlement(ORR),disclosesthewhereaboutofthemorethan85,000childrenreleased tosponsors,aswellasinformationaboutminorswhohavediedorhavebeeninjuredin theworkplace;
3) ThatDHHSandORRworkwithIndigenouspeoplestodevelopaprocessto appropriatelyrecognizetheIndigenousidentitiesofthechildrenintheirprogramsand requirethisfromallcareprovidersworkingwithunaccompaniedminors;
4) Themediastoperasingandmislabelingus,andinsteadworktomakevisibleourdistinct Indigenousidentities.Wecallattentiontothefactthatwhenanarticlementionsthatthe childrenarefroma“ruralGuatemalanvillage”theyshouldexplicitlymentiontheMaya Nationwhoseterritorytheyarereferringto;
5) MeetandconsultwithleadersfromMayaandotherIndigenousNations and organizationstoheartheirconcernsandrecommendationsand potentialsolutionsto immigrationpolicies.