>> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> tomorrow morning, diplomat and author nassir abdulaziz al-nasser. >> when there is consensus you'll see great results. >> battling extremism. >> religious leaders have a big responsibility. >> advancing peace. >> today the world turned into a global village. >> promoting change. >> i think united nations should be reformed. >> every sunday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. "talk to al jazeera". tomorrow morning, 9:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> america's first climate refugees >> this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. >> who's to blame? >> 36% of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry... >> ...and a fight to save america's coastline. >> we have kinda made a deal with the devil >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... the disappearing delta only on al jazeera america reading writing and politics. jeb bush says it's time to loosen the grip of politics on the education system. >> it's going to take a big political fight monopolies don't go lightly into the night. >> whether she agrees tha
fields of america. >> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> al jazeera's investigative unit has tonight's exclusive report. >> stories that have impact. that make a difference. that open your world. >> this is what we do. >> america tonight. tuesday through friday. 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> tomorrow morning, diplomat and author nassir abdulaziz al-nasser. >> when there is consensus you'll see great results. >> battling extremism. >> religious leaders have a big responsibility. >> advancing peace. >> today the world turned into a global village. >> promoting change. >> i think united nations should be reformed. >> every sunday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. "talk to al jazeera". tomorrow morning, 9:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> america's first climate refugees >> this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. >> who's to blame? >> 36% of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry... >> ...and a fight to save america's coastline. >> we have kinda made a deal with the devil >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... the disappearing delta only on al jazeera america reading writing and politics. jeb bush says it's time to loosen the grip of politics on the education system. >> it's going to take a big political fight, monopolies don't go lightly into the night. >> whether she agrees that it's time to get tough on teachers.
>> it's just another day on the fields of america. >> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> tomorrow morning, diplomat and author nassir abdulaziz al-nasser. >> when there is consensus you'll see great results. >> battling extremism. >> religious leaders have a big responsibility. >> advancing peace. >> today the world turned into a global village. >> promoting change. >> i think united nations should be reformed. >> every sunday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. "talk to al jazeera". tomorrow morning, 9:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. pro-russian rebels say they have surrounded the strategic town of debaltseve in eastern ukraine something which ukraine itself denies. good to have you with us, i'm david foster. you're watching al jazeera coming up life. anwar ibrahim jailed after a conviction for sodomy. the ruling party bjp the anticonstruction
>> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> al jazeera america presents borderland's dramatic conclusion >> no one's prepared for this journey. >> our teams experience the heart breaking desperation >> we're all following stories of people that have died in the desert. >> and the importance... >> experiencing it, has changed me completely... >> of the lives that were lost in the desert >> this is the most dangerous part of your trip... >> an emotional finale you can't miss... >> we got be here to tell the story. >> the final journey borderland only on al jazeera america on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> tomorrow on techknow. what if there was a miracle >> grace's stem cells are in this box >> that could save the life of your child >> we're gonna to do whatever we can >> would you give it a try? >> cell therapy is going to be the next big advance in medicine >> tech know, every monday go where science meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've every done, even though i can't see. >> tech know. >> we're here in the vortex. >> tomorrow, 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. it's frustrating being stuck in the house. good thing xfinity's got 2 hour appointment windows. they even guarantee they'll be on time or i get a $20 credit. it's perfect for me... ...'cause i got things to do. ♪ ♪ oh, yeah! woooo! with a guaranteed 2 hour appointment window and a 97% on-time rate xfinity is perfect for people with a busy life. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> america's first climate refugees >> this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. >> who's to blame? >> 36% of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry... >> ...and a fight to save america's coastline. >> we have kinda made a deal with the devil >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... the disappearing delta only on al jazeera america worthless deeds. welcome to florida, 2015. >> i thought that we lived in a country where your property couldn't be seized for private gape. this may be legal. my question to you is it moral. his response. >> there's no question of morality in business. >> how do you describe yourself? >> a mad junkyard dog. defensive.
>> it's just another day on the fields of america. >> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> at one time i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. >> as the amount of drugs grew guns came in. >> murder rate was sky-high. >> this guy was the biggest in l.a. >> i was goin' through a million dollars worth of drugs every day. i liked it. it's hard to believe that a friend would set you up. people don't get federal life sentences and beat them. >> they had been trafficking on behalf of the united states government. >> the cia admitted it. >> "freeway - crack in the system". premieres sunday march 1st, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy... >> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live... >> start with one issue. add guests from all sides of the debate and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". weeknights at 11:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> writer taiye selasi shares her impactful point of view >> certain people have to explain there presence... >> when you're part of many worlds, where is home? >> in ghana, i was not going to be able to become the person i wanted to be. >> every monday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera part of our special black history month coverage on al jazeera america >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> america's first climate refugees >> this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. >> who's to blame? >> 36% of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry... >> ...and a fight to save america's coastline. >> we have kinda made a deal with the devil >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... the disappearing delta only on al jazeera america >> egypt strikes targets in libya after i.s.i.l. releases a video showing the killing of egyptian cop ticks. -- coptics welcome to al jazeera. also on the programme - the u.n. security council votes against the houthi coup in yemen, and tells the rebels to hand over power immediately. footage moments after a deadly attack in copenhagen. police reveal more details of the gunman they shot dead why a
fields of america. >> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> abducted. imprisoned. tortured. we talked to a cia insider... >> what is our definition of torture, and what are we allowed to do? >> and a former prisoner who was never charged. >> he was beaten, he was denied sleep. >> find out what really happens in a cia black site. >> you will do whatever it takes to get this man to talk. >> an "america tonight" in-depth report. tomorrow, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> america's first climate refugees >> this is probably a hurricane away from it being gone. >> who's to blame? >> 36% of land lost was caused by oil and gas industry... >> ...and a fight to save america's coastline. >> we have kinda made a deal with the devil >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... the disappearing delta only on al jazeera america hello and welcome. i'm phil torres to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore hardware and humanity in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out our team of hard-core nerds. tonight she's on the front lines of a devastating wildfire as a drone takes command of the skies over yosemite.
>> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> "inside story", now at a new time. >> join me as we bring you an in-depth look at the most important issues of the day, breaking it down, getting you the facts. it's the only place you'll find the inside story. >> now at its new time. weeknights, 11:30 eastern. on al jazeera america. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> sunday, the parents of captured american reporter austin tice. >> austin went missing in syria. >> campaigning for his release and maintaining hope. >> austin tice is alive. >> find him and get him home. >> a special "talk to al jazeera". sunday, 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. you thank you very much. >> thank you. >> hello and welcome. i'm phil torres here to talk about innovations that can change lives. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out our team of hard core nerds. >> dr. crystal dilworth is a molecular neuroscientist. a young woman murdered, a trail that went cold after 19 years.
fields of america. >> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> today on "the stream". >> how one man's inability to read drove him to become one of the country's biggest crack dealers, and the consequences, on "the stream". >> "the stream". today, 12:30 eastern. on al jazeera america. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> tomorrow. >> i am a mother of a missing child. >> every parents worst nightmare. >> this could have been anybody. >> but in a twisted tale of neglect, abuse, murder and suicide. >> are kids today safer? >> who's to blame? >> i've answered your question. >> a dysfunctional family... >> the mother certainly played a role. >> a flawed investigation... >> do you feel that the police has been as fair? >> and a missing child. >> i hope that the person that has her just bring her home. >> now, "america tonight" investigates the search for relisha. tomorrow, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> we pray for the children in the womb >> a divisive issue >> god is life , so it's his to take >> see a 10 year old girl who's pregnant, and you tell me that's what god wants... >> a controversial law >> where were you when the babies lives were being saved? >> are women in texas paying the price? >> fault lines al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... award winning investigative documentary series... access restricted only on al jazeera america is "techknow." a a show about intersection of hardware and heuvment and we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science, by scientists. tonight, "techknow" investigates mining the deep. dr. shini somara is a mechanical engineer. tonight, one company's ambitious plan that could be worth a
>> hi, can you tell me your name? >> gabriella. workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> tonight. >> i am a mother of a missing child. >> every parents worst nightmare. >> this could have been anybody. >> but in a twisted tale of neglect, abuse, murder and suicide. >> are kids today safer? >> who's to blame? >> i've answered your question. >> a dysfunctional family... >> the mother certainly played a role. >> a flawed investigation... >> do you feel that the police has been as fair? >> and a missing child. >> i hope that the person that has her just bring her home. >> now, "america tonight" investigates the search for relisha. tonight, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> discipline... >> that's what i wanna hear... >> strength... >> give me all you got... >> respect.... >> now... >> bootcamp >> stop your'e whining... >> for bad kids... >> they get a little dirty... so what... >> dangerous... >> we have shackles with spit bag... >> they're still having nightmares >> if you can't straighten out your kids... >> they're mine >> al jazeera america presents camp last resort on al jazeera america >> this is the true definition of tough love is "techknow." a a show about intersection of hardware and heuvment and we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science, by scientists. tonight, "techknow" investigates mining the deep. dr. shini somara is a mechanical engineer. tonight, one company's ambitious plan that could
workers like gabriella are not uncommon. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> seven! >> the us government estimates that nearly 10 percent of hired field workers in this country are children. >> when it comes to children, it is a big deal. young children that we heard about, collecting blueberries, 3 and 5 years old, 7 years old and the rationale was, because their hands are so tender and small, that they would not crush the blueberries. >> what they're doing is noble and helping the family, but they need to break the cycle. >> if the public were more aware, i think they'd be outraged. >> this week on fault lines investigates children at work in agriculture, america's hidden harvest. it's saturday morning at mariana higareda's house. she's taking her daughter and granddaughter out to the fields to pick onions. since it's a weekend, it will be a full day of harvesting. >> mariana and her children follow the harvest across texas, into new mexico and colorado. they live in their home in laredo, texas, for only part of the year. onions have to be harvested by hand. workers clip off the roots and green tops, and collect them into burlap bags to cure in the field. >> the workers earn between 80 cents to $1.75 per bag of onions. for the young men that work at a very fast clip that means that they could potentially earn up to $20 an hour. however most of these people are earning less than $10. that means that there's an incentive for families to bring their kids up. the kid's bags are counted towards their parent totals, thereby making them more productive. >> it also means these children are making far less than the minimum wage. the us government estimates that hundreds of thousands of children like anabella and evelyn, are hired to work in the fields. it can be back-breaking work. >> currently federal law allows for children as young as 12 to work out in the fields an unlimited amount of hours outside of school. in any other industry, kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. there are some exemptions that allow 14 or 15 year olds, but they are very limited hours they can work and they have to work with their school system. you don't see any of that in agriculture. as long as you're 12, you have your parent with you or some sort of permission from your parent then you're allowed to work an unlimited amount of hours. >> back in 1938, the law was mostly established for children of farm owners. more of a "i'm a farm owner, i have children, it's okay to have my 12 year old, and in many instances, my 10 year old to work in the fields with me." but that was a personal relationship, obviously. now we're looking at children working for someone else, and the law, they fall under that loophole. >> you work pretty hard out there. >> so like we can go more faster and we can leave. because it's hard to cut them and pick them. >> all over the country, children like evelyn put in long days, in extreme temperatures sometimes without shelter and access to facilities. they are exposed to pesticides over long periods of time. >> have you ever felt sick because of chemicals on the plants? >> um, ya, actually i have. >> you can actually see em' on the plants. extreme poverty can leave few other options. laredo, texas, sits just inside the us border with mexico. this school has some of the highest numbers of migrant farmworker children in the area. they travel with their families to other states to work for part of the year changing schools in the middle of a term. like mariana's daughter, anabella, who works in the onion fields. at 14 years old, she is in the 7th grade, and behind in school. she struggles with reading. >> when i get to one school, like, they're teaching me like something else in one school, in another school they're teaching something else, so that like how hard it is to catch up. right now i'm only failing 2 classes. >> noemi ochoa advocates for school children who are also migrants workers. she began working in the fields with her own migrant parents at age 9. >> my dad, every day, 4 o'clock in the morning, my dad (knocking) "levantesan." right? how many of you get up that early, 4 or 5 in the morning to go out to the fields? it's not easy, right? how many of you started working younger than 10 years old? >> migrant chidren have to leave school early, and come to school late, perhaps go to a school in another state. the curriculum is different, different teachers, different friends, different text books, different assessments. right now the association of farmworker opportunity out of washington, dc is still quoting a 60% drop out rate nationally for migrant students. >> i'm one of the lucky ones that i actually convinced my parents that i don't want to get out of school, but there are cases where others have to get out and missing their education, have to stay behind, so many grade levels. missing out on credits and classes. >> alejandra flores is doing well in school. she began working in the cotton fields at age 10. >> from what i've seen, there's no rules. i've seen people younger than me work in the fields, and there's no one there to stop them and tell them, "you know what, you're not supposed to be here you're supposed to be at school. the people that hire you to do the job, the employers ask, "is she 12 is she 13," they just want their job done, and fast. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. on a commercial onion farm in texas we found gabriella, age nine. she is not a legal age to work. but nobody here was checking. >> so what grade are you in at school? >> second grade. the us is one of only three countries that have not ratified the un's convention on the rights of the child. and the us rules on child labor in agricultural haven't changed in over 40 years. >> some legislators have tried to raise the minimum age for farm workers. the care act of 2009 would have brought it up to 14, the same as it is for every other industry. however, this bill was opposed by the farm lobby, so after it was introduced to congress, it was referred to committee, where it died. >> we've come to washington dc to talk to one of the biggest lobbies for agricultural interests, the american farm bureau federation. spending close to $6 million on lobbying for agriculture in one year, it's a major player keeping government regulation off of farms and big agro businesses. i'm meeting kristi boswell, the director of congressional relations. she works on labor and immigration. >> why is it that agriculture is the only industry that needs an exemption to the minimum age requirements? >> frankly it's the nature of our industry. this is a way of life. this is not a job. it is not a task. and i have the passion for agriculture because i was able to feed a bottle calf when i was a child and help my dad with field work. it is a different type of industry. >> how different is the experience of someone who is working legally on the farm at a young age, like 12, 13, 14 year old. how different is their experience than say, your experience where it was your parents' farm? >> 12, 13, 14 year old are not legally working. >> yeah, because the minimum age is 12, right? >> 16. it's 16 unless for a family farm. >> no, but people can be 12 years old and work on the field. >> no. it's 16. >> not according to the us department of labor. the minimum age standards for agricultural employment allows children as young as 12. and even 10-years-olds can be employed harvesting crops by hand. the rules don't apply to farm children on their own parent's farms. the people who lobby congress for labor and immigration issues aren't even aware of what the laws are. >> all our employers are abiding by the laws and regulations and they're not. by and large there is bad actors but by and large they are paying minimum wage or higher to everyone working legally on their farm and making sure that they're not being exploited. >> agrictulure ranks near the top of most hazardous work along with mining and construction. for workers aged 15 to 17, the risk of fatal injury is four times as much as other industries, according to the labor department. but many farmers in the us are against changing the old child labor laws. we're going to meet one, a member of the farm bureua and a cattle rancher in montana. >> dennis rehberg, he's a former congressman who today works as a lobbyist here in washington dc. >> he served in congress for 12 years and sat on a house committee for us agriculture. he was given an award by the farm bureau for representing its interests while in office. >> we were in texas watching the onion picking process, and i just want to show you what that looked like, they're sharpening the sheers. gabriella, she's 9. so what's your reaction to seeing kids like that out in the field working on a... >> see i have no context. i could tell you that i have had my son or daughter out. >> so they're working on a farm. >> again i. >> it belongs to somebody who has no, it's a subcontractor that pays them is hired by the farmer. >> it can't speak to it because it just don't' know it. you've been there. i can speak to my own place, i wasn't necessarily a stay at home dad but i was the primary caretaker. my daughter i had a kelty kid pack on the back of my, on my back and i carried her around while i was fencing, while i was herding cattle, and it gave her a solid work ethic. >> presumably we say child labor is wrong. should that be prevented in any way or should we keep the laws as it is where that's legal. >> it is not necessarily legal the fact that there are laws in place and there are regulations in place. >> so can you explain why it's not? how that would not be legal? because right now the flsa says that over 12 if you have your parents' permission. >> and what you're suggesting is that government take primacy over a family. that the government has a better understanding than parents, than the mom and dad. i hope we don't go into a situation in this country where the federal government things they can better raise the children than us. that is a fundamental different of philosophy. but to those who believe the federal government is solution and there are those of us who think that the federal government because of the one size fits all attitude or standard is the problem. >> we're in northern kentucky. we've heard about a family that picks tobacco. some of them are under the age of eighteen, meaning they're old enough to work in the fields but not old enough to use the finished product. >> this family is getting ready for a day in the tobacco fields. they would prefer we didn't say their last names. tobacco has to be cut when it is very dry to avoid the risk of green sickness, basically an overdose of nicotine through the skin. working in high humidity or in sweaty clothes is sometimes enough to cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. in the us children as young as 7 have been found to suffer from the sickness according to the department of labor. carlos is a 10-year-old boy who has come with his family to the field. he is still too small to do the cutting and stacking, but he helps out in other ways. he says he's tried it, but he can't push the tough stalks through the stakes. >> what's hard about it? >> sometimes it's too hard. >> to push it? yeah, you need strength to push it down. >> but he says that he does work on other parts of tobacco cultivation, like planting the seedlings, weeding. >> when it gets more taller, you have to cut the grass, and then you have to cut the flower. >> he says he also helps sort the leaves. >> and then the sticks we leave them, we're going to throw them. >> are you able to do that? that part? >> yeah. >> the association of schools of public health reports that on a humid day, a worker can absorb the equivalent of 36 cigarettes working with green tobacco. >> and when you do get a chance to do a little bit of work and you give that money to your family, how does that make you feel? >> proud. >> why do you feel that? >> because i'm helping my family. with child labor, everyone involved has a stake in keeping the laws as they are. farmers need their crops harvested, and families living below the poverty line need the added income. there are few voices raised to speak for the migrant children and powerful lobbies are working to resist changes. >> watch more "faultlines" on demand or visit aljazeera.com/faultlines. >> on hard earned, what would you do? >> the army is the last resort but i will do anything necessary for my family... >> when you're running out of choices... >> maybe i should become a nun... do nuns smoke? >> and your back's against the wall... >> i have a problem... i don't speak english... >> hard earned pride... hard earned respect... hard earned future... a real look at the american dream hard earned only on al jazeera america >> part of our month long look at working in america. "hard earned". >> back in the 1930 a lot of the folks that were working out in the fields tended to be black. now those people are latinos that are coming in. and the latinos are just as disenfranchised, they don't have a lot of power. and especially with the current climate around immigration and how we have seen a lot of racial tension towards latinos, it has made it very difficult for us to be able to update these laws that haven't been touched in decades. >> we tried to move forward on changing the regulations in terms of how young children are treated in the agricultural areas and we ran up against a lot of opposition from major industry, the farm bureau and big business. we're talking about special interests here, big special interests. it was kind of a david and goliath if you ask me. >> in 2009, hilda solis became the first latina to ever hold a position in a president's cabinet while in office, solis introduced updates to the child labor law that would have kept children out of hazardous farm work. she was blasted by members of congress for over-reaching her powers. >> i'm troubled by the fact that where you start is so contrary to a way of life, to common sense and to the that things are done. norma flores lopez was part of a coalition that worked to get the changes passed. >> some of the mis-information that we saw out there was that children would not be able to do any type of work in agriculture, that they wouldn't be able to operate a battery operated flashlight or to be able to use a hand-held screwdriver. >> it was so broad that it banned someone under the age of 16 from using a power-driven screwdriver. >> they were led to believe that they wouldn't be able to work on any farm, even if it was their parents. that the parent exemption would be done away with. >> there are some things people in dc don't understand how it plays out on the ground. >> reyberg led the charge in congress to ensure the changes never left the ground. >> we are all interested in safe work environments. we don't want our children at risk however one of the ways you learn about safety is working, working with your parent, your neighbor, a grandparent or a friend. and this would have removed that opportunity. >> facing intense public pressure, the obama administration withdrew the proposed changes in 2012. then, when the president entered his second term in early 2013, solis resigned. >> you can present your side of the facts to as many people as you can but it wasn't enough, it wasn't enough. >> we just met up with another migrant family, a mother and her son. we're following them to bring lunch to the father and brother. the brother is 16 and that's interesting because some of the big tobacco companies have pledged not to have anybody under 18 working in the fields that they source their tobacco from. >> most big tobacco companies have pledged to eliminate the use of child labor in tobacco production around the world. but under us federal law none of the activity in this tobacco barn is considered particularily hazardous for children. >> right now, you're looking down from the first level. there's 3 more levels up after that. on the top level, putting in over an eight hour day, a 16 year old. sixteen is old enough to work in most jobs. but in most industries 16-year-olds are barred from doing ones as hazardous as this. straddling loose boards dozens of feet off the ground and without a safety harness. >> the agriculture industry reaps the benefits of hiring young workers and maintains the statis quo using the rallying cry of protecting the american family farm. for migrant families and their children, there's little chance for a way out. >> what we end up seeing is this generational cycle of poverty that keeps getting perpetuated where these kids that are dropping out are having to go out in the fields because that's the only way that they know how to make a living and end up being stuck out there their whole lives, end up taking their children with them. and it ends up keep repeating itself. >> i don't think i even remember having a childhood. it's nothing but work. these are the same people i've seen here since i was small, and they are still here. i don't see them moving up or anything like that. >> the end of aging... >> eternal youth... >> ...eternal life or eternal youth? >> curing death... >> we're heading from have and have nots... to a world of haves, and super haves.. >> can you afford to live forever? >> what's wrong? >> if rich people who got to live longer than poor people. >> then it's no fair... >> fault lines. al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today they will be arrested. >> groundbreaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award winning investigative series new episode the death of aging only on al jazeera america tossing on the waves of the mediterranean, thousands upon thousands of migrants fleeing wars and chaos and searching for opportunity. the single biggest group are syrians - tens of thousands of them with their children and little else - will risk this voyage. most often it leads to italy, but that is not where this journey ends of the to better understand what happ