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The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division have launched an investigation into a poultry plant in Mississippi after a 16-year-old from Guatemala died in an accident.
It is illegal for anybody under the age of 18 to work in a poultry plant.
The company, Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC's Hattiesburg, Mississippi, said that they are cooperating with the investigation into the boy's death.
"On the evening of Friday, July 14, an employee conducting sanitation operations at Mar-Jac Poultry MS LLC's Hattiesburg, Mississippi poultry processing plant died as a result of injuries sustained in an accident," the company said in a statement to CNN. "We deeply regret the loss and send our most sincere condolences to his family and friends."
A worker who was at the plant told NBC News he heard the boy scream but couldn't do anything to help.
"Two times he began to scream, 'Help! Help!'" the worker said. "I knew he had died," the worker added.
The boy has been identified as Duvan Tomas Perez, an immigrant from Guatemala who came to the United States six years ago.
"We're very sad," a relative, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they face a pending immigration issue, told NBC News. "He was generous, smiley, and very fun and very responsible at work."