For the past year, the Aguilar sisters have worked in fields harvesting produce — eight hours a day, five days a week. They are just two of the estimated 400,000 to 500,000 child laborers who harvest the nation’s produce, according to the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs. Current regulations under the U.S. Labor Department allow for children, some younger than 12, to work in agriculture. Many live in the country without their parents. The result, experts say, has been a generation of children whose lives revolve around the fields — and who struggle to get an education. |