A Texas National Guardsman escorts a group of migrants toward a checkpoint in Eagle Pass, Texas, the United States, on Oct. 9, 2022. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

This labor force has been slowly growing for almost a decade, but it has exploded since 2021, while the systems meant to protect children have broken down.

NEW YORK, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The New York Times has unveiled a new economy of exploitation in the United States: migrant children, who have been coming into the country without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs.

"This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century," the newspaper said in a report published last week.

"Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee. Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina. Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota," the report said.

Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic, according to the report.

This labor force has been slowly growing for almost a decade, but it has exploded since 2021, while the systems meant to protect children have broken down, the report added.