In Florida, a Republican-backed bill aims to legalise night work for children as young as 14. This disturbing shift is driven by Donald Trump’s hard-line immigration policy, which seeks to deport 15 million undocumented migrants, even if it means sacrificing the fundamental rights of children.
A return to the 19th century?
In the 21st century, Florida is seriously considering allowing adolescents, and potentially 14-year-olds, to work night shifts, over eight consecutive hours, six days a week, with no compulsory breaks. The bill, already approved by a legislative committee, would wipe out the child labour protections established since the 1980s.
The goal? To replace deported migrant workers with a precarious and overexploited youth workforce. This measure marks a dramatic social regression, in direct opposition to the fundamental principles of child protection.
According to the Florida Policy Institute, 93,000 16-17-year-olds are already employed out of a total 520,000 teens in that age group. The proposed law would allow them to work through the night, even on school days. Protections in place for over four decades would be swept away.
Migrant crackdowns = youth precarity
This shift is no accident. It’s part of Donald Trump’s crusade against immigration, supported by Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. Trump has promised to deport 15 million undocumented people if re-elected. But these migrants, often working without rights, are vital to sectors such as agriculture, construction, cleaning, and hospitality.
Without them, large parts of the US economy, especially in Florida, would collapse. To keep the machine running, Republicans would rather expose teenagers to exhausting night work than acknowledge the indispensable contribution of migrant labour.
The Trump administration has redirected public funds toward fast-track deportation programmes while simultaneously dismantling social protections, spreading fear and fuelling economic opportunism rooted in xenophobia.
Florida as a case study: teens reaping the fruits of xenophobia
Florida is emblematic. The state produces 70% of the citrus fruit consumed in the United States. It’s also a major cattle-rearing region and a tourism hub. These industries have long depended on low-paid immigrant labour. As they are pushed out, the state seeks to replace them with teenagers.
In citrus groves or budget hotels, teens would now be available seven days a week, day and night. The bill, modelled after similar proposals in Arkansas and Iowa, removes compulsory breaks, permits overnight work, and lifts all hourly limits, even for children still attending school.
Political cynicism and ideological manipulation
Ron DeSantis justifies this social regression with nostalgic rhetoric: “What’s wrong with expecting our kids to work part-time? That’s how it was when I was young,” he claims. This populist narrative masks a harsh reality: this is not about summer jobs but an organised plan to structurally replace migrant labour with economically vulnerable youth.
This is ideological exploitation of young people in the service of xenophobic goals: punishing migrants while reinforcing a caste-based society where only working-class children are forced to toil through the night. Many of these teenagers, often from minority or disadvantaged backgrounds, are now targets of a ruthless economic system.
A national strategy?
Is Florida a test case? Other Republican-led states have already begun similar efforts: Arkansas and Iowa have also loosened child labour laws. A broader trend is emerging, less social protection, more precarity, more exploitation, all backed by security-focused rhetoric and anti-immigrant propaganda.
This conservative offensive is part of a larger strategy: dismantling the social gains of the 20th century under the guise of “common sense” and traditional values. A narrative that barely conceals a deeply unequal vision of society.
Towards a dystopian America
Trump and DeSantis’ America doesn’t just deport migrants, it sends its children into the fields and factories. A society willing to sacrifice the future of its youth to satisfy a fantasy of national purity is one that is dangerously regressing.
As Eduardo Galeano wrote: “The upside-down world teaches us to endure reality rather than change it.” Now is not the time to adapt, but to denounce.
Acid Report will continue to expose the reactionary drift of an America where fear of the outsider justifies the exploitation of its own people…
G.S.
