Child labor

While I have been cognizent of the fact that young children are working in the cobalt mines in Africa so Westerners can have electric cars, I have overlooked a more serious problem close home. Over the past couple of years over 250,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed our southern border and many are being subjected to abuse and trafficking. Here is from the NY Times. Alone and exploited, migrant children work in brutal jobs across the US. Arriving in record numbers, the are ending up in dangerous jobs that violate child labor laws, including in factories that make products for well-known brands like Cheetos and Fruit of the Loom. Other sources report even more serious problems. The most common victims of sex trafficking are children because they are more vulnerable. The US Department of State estimates between 14,000 and 17,000 victims are trafficked within the United States each year. An estimated 72% of these victims are immigrants. These border problems also cause many women to be assaulted and the deaths of many thousands of US citizens from drugs like fentanyl while providing billions of dollars to illegal cartels.