The U.S. Department of Labor has launched an investigation into child labor at poultry processors Perdue and Tyson Foods. The probe comes after lawmakers grilled the head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration about reports in The New York Times about migrant children getting burned and maimed on the job at Perdue and Tyson slaughterhouses. This is North Carolina Congressmember Alma Adams, ranking Democrat on the House Workforce Protections Subcommittee, whose repeated requests for a hearing on child labor violations have gone ignored by the committee’s Republican chair, Virginia Foxx.

Rep. Alma Adams: “Thanks to recent news investigations, we also know that children, especially unaccompanied migrant children, have been suffering all manner of harms in jobs that they should not be working on in the first place. But take a closer look at those stories: chemicals so caustic that they burn through multiple layers of gloves, machines without guards to prevent people’s arms or hands from getting mangled, food dust and cleaning chemical fumes that irritate the sinuses and lungs. These stories are not only about children in desperate circumstances, they’re also about workplaces that are dangerous to people of all ages.”

Click here to see our interview with The New York Times’s Hannah Dreier about her investigation into child labor in the United States.