A 16-year-old employee who died after getting sucked into equipment at a Mississippi poultry plant got the job using the identity of a 32-year-old man, a new revelation that highlights the ease with which migrant children are finding work in a dangerous industry, and the challenges companies face in trying to evaluate their true ages.

In September, OSHA appealed to Mar-Jac employees in a press release to reach out to the agency to discuss the circumstances around Pérez’s death, noting that federal law protects the rights of workers to participate in a Labor Department investigation.

A representative for Chick-fil-A, which buys chicken from Mar-Jac, said in a statement, “We are reviewing our own procedures for investigation and response as we pursue the steps necessary to effectively hold all our suppliers to our high safety standards.”

Many of these children come from rural, Indigenous towns where the human smuggler, known as a “coyote,” is often a community member, experts say, and families commit to paying back thousands of dollars in order to get to the U.S.

A spokesperson for Hearthside Food Solutions pointed to an editorial by the company following an investigation by The New York Times that said in part: “When we became aware of the story, we took decisive action focused on rooting out what may have enabled underage workers hired by our staffing agencies to enter our facilities.”

NBC News broke the story that FBI agents found more than two dozen minors working at the Gerber’s Poultry plant in a midnight raid in October.

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