There are legal avenues to explore in regard to the treatment of children in the Trump concentration camps. (Note: I didn’t say death camps, I said concentration camps. There’s a difference.)
Now, what follows may sound like pettifoggery or a ridiculous distraction from the core inhumanity of our modern GOP… BUT, courts like to see a clearcut violation of a law. What follows are grounds for what look to me like instantaneous court orders, if lawyers in the states impacted can find plaintiffs amongst the children.
These grounds concern the use of minor children as unpaid labor in day care, but keep reading: this really is useful stuff.
1. SLAVERY:
Is the employment as childcare workers truly voluntary and not coerced? Those in favor of closing their eyes to an abuse are able to find all sorts of example of “voluntary” labor, but courts have (in better times) been pretty strict about the unequal power situations. If a child is brought from their home country to the US, ripped from their parents arms, incarcerated, and then told by a large armed man that they should take care of an even younger child… is this voluntary labor?
Oddly enough, to the best of my knowledge only the state of Colorado has outright banned penal slave labor (a citizens’ initiative won in 2018). BUT at present the DOJ claims that these children are NOT being punished for any crime. (I’m not even sure the DOJ admits that they’re being incarcerated indefinitely.) They’re just being held separated from their parents because it’s not legal to incarcerate a child with an adult accused of a crime. Thus, the kids are innocent of any crime under US law, and NON-penal slave labor was pretty comprehensively abolished by the 13th Amendment shortly after the Great War of Southern Treason.
Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
The children in the camps have not been duly convicted of any crime. They cannot be forced to work.
2. CHILD LABOR
While the US has never formally adopted the Minimum Age Convention (adopted by 171 other nations including almost every other first world nation), the US does have the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 USC Section 203 et seq. Under this law, it is illegal for children under the age of 14 to work at all. Children under the age of 18 may not work in hazardous conditions.
( Is a concentration camp hazardous conditions? Somehow I imagine that the Secretary of Labor has never before had to decide whether childcare in a concentration camp should or should not be declared a hazardous condition. But then, this is the first time anyone had to decide if “soap” is a part of “hygiene”. Ah, making America great again! )
Or… are children over the age of 14 being confined with younger children? Hmmm… that’s worrisome...
If children age 16 and 17 ARE being used for childcare, then are the rules on the maximum number of hours per day of child labor being enforced? Since school is out, the children being forced into childcare can only work 8 hours per day maximum (no exception, unlike overtime), 40 hours per week maximum (again no exceptions).
And the only legal hours for child labor are 7 AM to 9 PM (school being out at this time of year). Can the DOJ prove that they have coverage, by adults, from 9PM and on through the night?
There is an exception for babysitting IN THE HOME… is the DOJ stating that the children are being held in their “new homes”? (Trust me, that’s a different can of worms involving DOJ claiming the incarcerations are very very so very short.)
Oh… and most states have child labor laws on the books, which are usually slightly tighter in some regards. Under the FLSA, whichever law is stricter is the one that applies.
3. WAGE THEFT
So… ICE is of course paying the children they’ve impressed into service, right?
Federal minimum wage? Oh wait, ICE remembered to go through a competitive bidding process for the contract to do the daycare in the cages… didn’t they? Publication of the request for proposals, consideration of the competing proposals, a fair selection… hoo boy.
Obviously before employment began, ICE verified that each child laborer had proper paperwork and was LEGAL to work in the US.
I mean. Of course.
After all… isn’t ICE in charge of making sure that illegal immigrants into the USA DO NOT work? Yeah… hmmm… how’s that going there?
4. WORKING CONDITIONS
DOJ/ICE has of course gotten the kids Social Security numbers or “A” numbers before employing them, but that does bring up the question of proper withholding, W-2s or W-9s,
Is a minimum wage poster properly posted in each cell?
Do the children doing the childcare have a proper break room? ( Do they even get breaks? )
ICE is making sure to follow all applicable standards for running a day care operation, right?
CONCLUSION:
There are avenues to pursue here that do NOT require the cooperation of the DOJ or actual Congressional oversight or media attention. Lawyers close to the detention centers should associate some labor lawyers, find a pint-sized plaintiff (the hard part might be finding the parents of the plaintiff, since DOJ has a policy of making everything as cruel as possible), and ask a judge for a TRO.
Trivial? You bet. Legalistic as hell? Yup. BUT… this is a straightforward and clear issue to throw before a judge, and the fact that it concerns children in cages should justify fast judicial action in the form of Orders.