Tolerating Illegal Child Labor

By Jon Feere on August 7, 2008

Once a business is permitted to violate immigration laws in the workplace, there’s no telling how many more laws will fall by the wayside.

ICE’s recent workplace enforcement at the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa uncovered the fact that the company was employing hundreds of illegal aliens. ICE has called this “the largest criminal worksite enforcement operation ever in the United States.”

But immigration laws were not the only laws allegedly being violated. Now, the executives have been charged with 9,311 child labor violations involving 32 youths.

Many open-border activists don’t want to see immigration enforcement in the workplace. But tolerating immigration violations in the workplace requires one to accept a likelihood of other labor violations as well.

Immigration laws exist for a reason. Those who decry enforcement of such laws are implicitly condoning exploitation of all types, including the exploitation of children.