'Rewarding': Fox host wants kids to pick blueberries as red states slash child labor laws

At least half a dozen red states have stripped away some child labor protections, allowing children to work longer hours, or in hazardous jobs, or without parental approval, or without rest breaks. Now, one Fox News host wants children to replace undocumented immigrants who perform often grueling farm work.

Indiana, for example, has eliminated child work permits and is allowing 16 and 17-year olds to perform adult work with no permits—although minors, per federal law, are not permitted to do hazardous work. No break or lunch period is required, “regardless of the number of hours worked in a day,” the Indiana Department of Labor states.

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has “touted using teenagers as a replacement for the labor of migrants who are in the country illegally,” Newsweek reported in May, but that legislation did not pass.

Arkansas now requires no work permits for children as young as 14. There are specific categories of hazardous work that are not permitted. Employers are not required to give rest breaks to minors, with some exceptions.

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Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, and West Virginia, have eliminated requirements for work permits, shorter shifts, and rest breaks altogether.

According to the Economic Policy Institute, six states last year weakened child labor protections. For example, in West Virginia, the law expands hazardous work in roofing for 16–17-year-olds.

Now, a Fox News Weekend co-host, Charlie Hurt, wants children to replace undocumented immigrant farm workers, to do what he calls “rewarding” work like picking blueberries.

Hurt on Sunday claimed the government is paying Americans to not work, before he launched into his rant about child workers.

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“And when you stop paying people not to work, they have to go out and get jobs,” Hurt exclaimed. “And the first jobs they go out and get are these wonderful, rewarding jobs like picking blueberries. I grew up pulling tobacco. There are wonderful jobs in farming, in construction.”

“All of this that has sort of been handed over to, largely, illegal aliens, allowed into the country to do all this cheap labor. Maybe you pay a little bit more for blueberries to actually have Americans picking the blueberries, but that’s wonderful. Allow children to do it as summer jobs.”

“The idea that your government, that your precious government, doesn’t allow children to work summer jobs in blueberry fields is just mind blowing to me,” Hurt claimed, which is false, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Federal law does not prohibit minors, in some cases as young as 12, from picking blueberries. State laws may vary.

Watch the video below or at this link.