NBC Retracts Story About Migrant Minor Who Turned Out To Be An Adult
Jennie Taer on April 20, 2023
NBC News retracted a story Wednesday it had published about the exploitation of migrant minors for work in the U.S. after the featured narrative turned out to be about an adult.
The NBC April 12 report featured the story of a Guatemalan migrant, Pedro, who claimed to be a 16-year-old that was exploited for work at a Kansas slaughterhouse, according to NBC News. Later, the company managing the slaughterhouse sent NBC a video of Pedro saying he wasn’t in fact a child and that he was actually 21.
“This article replaces one published by NBC News on April 12, 2023, about a migrant worker at a Kansas slaughterhouse. That article has been withdrawn in light of new information that the migrant is not a minor,” NBC’s subsequent editor’s note read.
NBC followed up with Pedro about his age and he said it’s “hard for me to explain.” After traveling to Guatemala and obtaining documentation, NBC discovered Pedro was actually 21.
The Guatemalan migrant initially claimed to be a child to more easily get released into the country after crossing the Southern border illegally, according to NBC News. Pedro spent three months in the care of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in Chicago and later attended high school in Kansas.
“It’s because over there in Guatemala we have a lot of need and we don’t have a lot of money and for that reason,” Pedro told NBC as to why he lied to U.S. border authorities.
The number of migrant children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally alone has surged in the last two years, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. The New York Times recently published a series of reports exposing how child migrants are being turned over by HHS to sponsors that are not family members for labor exploitation.
NBC Universal didn’t respond to a request for comment.
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