By Ira Mehlman
All those who are in denial about the moral rot that accompanies unchecked illegal immigration and the culpability of those who enable it, cast your eyes to Luverne, Alabama. That is where a major multinational corporation, Hyundai Motors, has been found to be employing children as young as 12 years old to stamp out parts for vehicles they assemble in a nearby plant. It should surprise no one that the kids in question are described as “migrants” from Guatemala.
Hyundai and its subsidiary, SMART, of course deny knowing that young children have been punching the time clock at their plants. The Korean-based auto maker pointed to its “human rights policy” posted online that forbids the use of child labor. SMART, which directly employed kids who should be in middle school, “denies any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment.” The company claims to rely on labor contractors to fill jobs and it expects “these agencies to follow the law in recruiting, hiring, and placing workers on its premises.” How could anyone in a position of authority at the factory be expected to notice that there were preteens working on the assembly line?
It’s easy to hate big corporations, especially when they get busted for labor practices straight out of a Charles Dickens novel. But it’s important to remember that if the allegations are true, Hyundai didn’t do this on their own. They had accomplices.
First and foremost are President Joe Biden and his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, who have made it clear that anyone who shows up at our border with children in tow will be given a free pass into the country. Once in the country, Mayorkas has promised that there would be no policing of worksites, absent compelling evidence that employers are exploiting illegal workers. (Apparently what was going on at the SMART plant didn’t rise to the level exploitation needed for Mayorkas to send his people over to have a look.)
Next on the rogues’ list are the criminal cartels that have become Biden’s and Mayorkas’ de facto partners. Unlike the illegal aliens in SMART’s plant, the criminal cartels don’t work cheaply, and since most of the people they are smuggling into the U.S. don’t have the cash up front, they are expected to work off their debts once they arrive in the U.S. As the father of a young girl whose disappearance finally got people to start asking questions explained, his daughter was working at the plant because the family needed the extra income.
Which brings us to the next culprits: The parents. In our increasingly judgment-free society no one wants to hold the parents of illegal alien minors accountable for their actions. However much we might understand people’s desire to flee places like Guatemala and come to a country like the United States, it does not absolve parents who a) enter into business arrangements with criminal organizations, b) knowingly violate the laws of the country they are entering and c) send their young children off to work in factories at an age when they should be in school mastering long division.
The sad coda to this story that should shock our national conscience is that nothing will change. If found guilty, Hyundai and its subsidiary will probably get slapped with a fine that amounts to the cost of doing business, while no one at the company will have to exchange pinstripes for prison stripes. The parents who allowed their kids to be exploited will likely get some counseling from a social worker and be allowed to remain here. The border will remain wide open and all manner of enforcement within the United States will remain virtually nonexistent, even though the Supreme Court has temporarily upheld a lower court’s order that the Biden administration resume enforcing many of the immigration laws it is refusing to carry out. As a result, the criminal cartels will go on raking in billions of dollars, while the moral rot on our nation will continue.
