Federal authorities have opened an investigation right into a Mississippi hen plant after a 16-year-old boy died following a office accident there, officers mentioned on Tuesday.

The boy, recognized by the native authorities as Duvan Tomas Perez, died on Friday evening after turning into ensnared in a machine he was cleansing on the Mar-Jac Poultry processing plant in Hattiesburg, Miss., in line with a press release by the corporate.

More particulars on how the underage employee died are pending a police investigation and an post-mortem report, mentioned Lisa Klem, the Forrest County deputy coroner.

Duvan immigrated to the United States from Guatemala roughly six years in the past, in line with Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity, a nonprofit group that helps migrants in Mississippi. He had been a scholar at N.R. Burger Middle School in Hattiesburg, in line with an obituary posted on Tuesday. His relations declined to touch upon his loss of life or the investigation.

Federal labor legal guidelines prohibit folks underneath the age of 18 from working and cleansing meat processing and packing gear, which the U.S. Labor Department defines as “particularly hazardous.” Mississippi’s state labor legal guidelines ban minors from working in packing industries or positions that contain processing meat and poultry.

In a press release, the Mar-Jac plant referred to as the loss of life a “tragedy” and acknowledged that the boy “should not have been hired,” however claimed that it had been unaware of Duvan’s age. It added that it had relied on staffing corporations to fill open positions due to an “unprecedentedly tight labor market” and to confirm that each job applicant was legally certified to work, although it didn’t specify which corporations.

“It appears, at this point in the investigation, that this individual’s age and identity were misrepresented on the paperwork,” Mar-Jac Poultry mentioned, including that it could be auditing its staffing corporations to make sure that the “error never happens again.”

In the previous 12 months, a number of states have launched laws making it simpler for corporations to place kids to work. The states — together with Iowa, Ohio and Arkansas — have proposed or handed payments increasing work hours and the varieties of jobs that minors can do, partially, to offset labor shortages.

These rollbacks, pushed primarily by Republican-dominated legislatures, come amid an inflow of migrant staff to the United States that has been exacerbated by financial plight of their dwelling international locations. Many of the younger staff come from Central America and are a part of a shadowy work force toiling in grueling environments together with slaughterhouses and sawmills, usually in violation of kid labor legal guidelines. From 2015 to 2022, circumstances involving baby labor violations have elevated by over 50 p.c, in line with Labor Department statistics.

Two Labor Department divisions — Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or O.S.H.A., and the Wage and Hour Division — have opened investigations into the power, in line with a division spokesperson. Mar-Jac Poultry mentioned it was totally cooperating with the O.S.H.A investigation.

The Hattiesburg Police Department additionally mentioned it was investigating the reason for loss of life and that it had notified Mar-Jac’s administration.

News of Duvan’s loss of life circulated broadly on social media over the weekend, igniting a dialog over labor practices in high-risk industries comparable to meat processing.

This was not the primary office incident on the Mar-Jac Poultry plant in Hattiesburg, mentioned Lorena Quiroz, director of the Immigrant Alliance for Justice and Equity. In 2020, she mentioned, a 33-year-old employee died after sustaining a severe damage within the plant’s battery charging room. Workers had been notifying the nonprofit of defective gear on the plant, Ms. Quiroz mentioned, and O.S.H.A. investigated the incident.

“This is not new, and now we’re having children being subjected to these conditions,” mentioned Ms. Quiroz.

In 2021, O.S.H.A. fined the plant over $11,000 for office violations after a separate episode through which an worker had the tip of her index finger severed on a conveyor belt, the company mentioned.

Founded in Georgia in 1954, Mar-Jac Poultry produces and provides hen for wholesalers and meals providers within the United States and overseas. It has workplaces in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.