Immigrant Teen Factory Workers

Over the past few years, tens of thousands of Central American teenagers have fled their country, often as unaccompanied minors, to seek asylum here in the U.S. One of the communities with a high concentration of Guatemalan teenagers is in the Chicago suburb of Bensenville. There, teenagers as young as 13 and 14 spend their days as students in school and then their evenings as laborers in dangerous factories. They work long shifts to pay off debts to their smugglers and sponsors, sending money home to the families they left behind. Some only have just an hour or two to sleep in between school and work. 

To bring us inside the lives of some of these immigrant teenagers is a reporter for ProPublica Illinois and an E.L. teacher at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois.

Guests:

Melissa Sanchez, Reporter for ProPublica Illinois and author of Inside the Lives of Immigrant Teens Working Dangerous Night Shifts in Suburban Factories

Becky Morales, EL teacher at York Community High School in Elmhurst, Illinois

Prepared for web by Zainab Qureshi. 

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