No one protected this 15-year-old migrant worker who fell 50 feet to his death from a roof in Alabama where he was laying down shingles, according to a New York Times investigation. The Times also reported on a 14-year-old food delivery migrant worker who was killed when hit by a car while on his bike at a Brooklyn intersection; a 16-year-old migrant who was crushed under a 35-ton tractor-scraper outside Atlanta; and a 14-year-old migrant youth killed in a landscaping job.

What are these kids doing working dangerous jobs? Sending money back home — to Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and other parts of impoverished Latin America. We’re talking about thousands of migrant children coming into the United States without their parents. They’re coming in record numbers, living with sponsors who may or may not keep tabs on them, and many have worked on products for big-brand corporations such as Whole Foods, Walmart, J. Crew, Frito-Lay, Ford and General Motors.