“We are going back to the 19th century”, warn the progressives. “A regressive era is coming!”

The United States is currently facing the regression.

Major achievements such as the eradication of Nazism, the legalization of abortion and the universal adoption of vaccines have already been flushed down the toilet because of Trumpists and far-right ultra-conservatives, US progressives argue.

The general consensus on the undesirability of corrupt patronage arrangements and child labor may be breaking down, warns Slate, a center-left liberal publication.

The resurgence of minors at work, as told in the New York Times, is caused by the Trump and Biden administrations’ crackdown on undocumented migration, against Mexican families crossing the southern border.

These individuals were, in turn, exploited by a network of sponsors and employers encouraged by the bureaucracy, they separate the children from their parents.

Just one example: “More than 100 mostly Spanish-speaking children, instead of going to school, were found working overnight in meatpacking plants across the country for a sanitation contractor.”

Since 2015, cases of minors exploited through illegal labor have been reported four times on the territory of the United States.

According to the Times, a number of federal workers have sent messages to the Biden administration that large numbers of children are at risk of being exploited after their release from detention centers.

While the White House says it has launched a crackdown on child labor practices, Iowa and Arkansas recently repealed laws that regulated the employment of workers as young as 14, which is certainly a way to prevent recording multiple violations.

Other Republican-led states are considering similar legislation.