With the current wave of unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. borders, several reports have surfaced claiming that for the past two years, some of the minors have been subjected to illegal acts and are smuggled as slave laborers, the Associated Press reports.

According to Fox News Latino, several unaccompanied minors were reportedly smuggled to be slave laborers in an egg farm in Ohio. The publication says that the said minors came to the U.S. to flee violence from their countries like El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

However, their search for refuge and political asylum have led them to an unfortunate state. The minors, per the publication, are forced to work long hours in the belief that their employers will help them by to have U.S. citizenship.

The authorities said, via the news outlet, that 23-year-old Pablo Duran, who is accused of creating a company that aims to hire undocumented minors in farms, has already pleaded guilty. This announcement came with the news that such practices started in 2014 and the influx of migrants entering was getting out of hand.

Furthermore, the news outlet revealed that the migrant situation was then taken advantage by certain people like Duran and another accused Guatemalan Aroldo Rigoberto Castillo-Serrano. The latter was accused of scheming minors to come to the U.S., promising them education, which will never be given to them.

Meanwhile, the news comes after the Associated Press also reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) have been under speculations of loosening their security and standards in light of the wave of minors from Central America coming to the U.S. borders.

According to the publication, the agency has let undocumented minors stay in sponsors' homes without making sure of their safety and well-being as some minors experience sexual assault, forced labor, domestic violence and abuse.

There were numerous cases investigated by the news outlet, including that of 14-year-old Guatemalan Marvin Velasco, whose sponsor deprived him of food. "He told authorities that he was going to take me to school and help me with food and clothing, but it wasn't like that at all," Velasco told the news outlet. "The whole time, I was just praying and thinking about my family."

Velasco, according to the publication, has since then been granted special legal status for young immigrants. The news agency urged that the problem is that the HHS' Office of Refugee Resettlement let go of their previously strict standards of doing background checks, taking fingerprints and other necessary means to ensure the safety and well-being of undocumented minors who are sent to sponsors.

However, HHS spokesman Mark Weber believes the opposite. "We are not taking shortcuts," he told the news outlet. "The program does an amazing job overall."