Large corporations in the United States have been extremely supportive of open borders for the last couple of years.
Well, now a breaking story out of Alabama has revealed migrant children as young as 12 have been working at a Hyundai subsidiary in the state of Alabama.
The metal stamping company called SMART Alabama LLC which is a subsidiary of the Korean carmaker Hyundai has been accused of hiring very young children.
In response, SMART Alabama has denied all allegations of violating child labor laws.
Today Reuters is reporting that underage workers – some as young as 12 – have toiled in a hazard-laden Alabama metal stamping plant that is a subsidiary of car-giant @Hyundai. Read the investigation w/ @jschney @kristinacooke here:https://t.co/ATtf5SJVeH
— Mica Rosenberg (@micarosenberg) July 22, 2022
CNBC added these details:
A subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Co has used child labor at a plant that supplies parts for the Korean carmaker’s assembly line in nearby Montgomery, Alabama, according to area police, the family of three underage workers, and eight former and current employees of the factory.
Underage workers, in some cases as young as 12, have recently worked at a metal stamping plant operated by SMART Alabama LLC, these people said. SMART, listed by Hyundai in corporate filings as a majority-owned unit, supplies parts for some of the most popular cars and SUVs built by the automaker in Montgomery, its flagship U.S. assembly plant.
Hyundai didn’t respond to phone calls or emails from Reuters seeking comment.
SMART, in a statement, said it follows federal, state and local laws and “denies any allegation that it knowingly employed anyone who is ineligible for employment.” The company said it relies on temporary work agencies to fill jobs and expects “these agencies to follow the law in recruiting, hiring, and placing workers on its premises.”
SMART didn’t answer specific questions about the workers cited in this story or on-the-job scenes they and other people familiar with the factory described.
Exclusive: Hyundai subsidiary has used child labor at Alabama factory https://t.co/TytsZNjdXj pic.twitter.com/ExRjuoBI8o
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 22, 2022
Cops made the discovery of young migrant workers working inside of the SMART metal plant after a 13-year-old girl who worked at the plant went missing.
The little girl was later found inside a car with a 21-year-old worker at the factory.
The Daily Mail had more on the story:
Migrant children have allegedly been found working at a Hyundai supplier in Alabama after police launched a probe into the disappearance of a 13-year-old girl who ran away with a 21-year-old plant employee.
SMART Alabama in Luverne, an automotive parts manufacturer that has supplied parts for Hyundai since 2003, reportedly fired multiple underage workers – some as young as 12 – as publicity around the missing girl’s case heated up.
A former employee alleged that as many as 50 underage workers were employed across various shifts when he was working at the plant.
The accusations date back to a February Amber Alert regarding Eidy Aracely Tzi Coc, who had briefly disappeared from her family’s home in the town of Enterprise alongside 21-year-old Alvaro Cucul.
Coc and her two brothers, aged 12 and 15, all worked at the plant earlier this year and weren’t going to school, according to people familiar with the situation. Pedro Tzi, Eidy’s father, confirmed that his children had worked there in an interview.
Tzi contacted Enterprise police on February 3 after she didn’t come home and police issued an amber alert.
They also launched a manhunt for Cucul, another Guatemalan migrant and SMART worker around that time with whom Tzi believed she might be. Using cell phone geolocation data, police located Cucul and the girl in a parking lot in Athens, Georgia the same day she was reported missing.
Join the conversation!
Please share your thoughts about this article below. We value your opinions, and would love to see you add to the discussion!