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Runemasque's avatar

The Minnesota data matches those national trends. Migrant children living with unrelated adults are most highly concentrated in Worthington, where JBS Foods had at least 22 underage children working overnight shifts cleaning a slaughterhouse. The janitorial company employing those children also sent underage workers to plants in St. Cloud and Austin, which also stand out on the map.

https://minnesotareformer.com/2024/05/06/unaccompanied-minors-flock-to-mn-meatpacking-towns-data-show/

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RunningLogic's avatar

Which debunks the whole “they’re coming here for a better life” narrative the Democrats keep bleating 😕

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Anita from Tucson - Now In MI's avatar

Right?

once again, better life "for me, and not for thee"

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Susan Clack's avatar

TRUTH!!! 😡😡😡🔥🔥🔥⚡⚡⚡

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Runemasque's avatar

They are likely still coming for a better life. Everyone knows someone who is doing well, sending money back to the family, living what from afar seems like a great life, and may well be. And many immigrants do make a good life for themselves, and sacrifice greatly to support family back home. The value of being "trabajador" is very strong. Work is a value, and family. If conditions are bad, it might not be possible, or feel right, to tell your family back home, when they can't help and are depending on you, even if you're underage. Once you start the journey, you want to make it and be what you and others imagined for you.

Being an immigrant sets one up for being vulnerable to abuses. The abuses can come from other immigrants, who are criminal. They can also come from citizens, who run businesses or take advantage of vulnerable people in a million ways. They are also victimized by law enforcement. Yes, there are ethical good cops, and there are those who find the authority useful or even corruptive to abuse those who don't see how to defend themselves.

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Kalinda's avatar

I hate to say it, but that might still be a "better life". Just not a better life to any of us. For some underage children, having a job with money is something better than they ever had (migrants or not).

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RunningLogic's avatar

I doubt being a virtual slave is a better life for anyone 😕 I also doubt they are making money, it’s probably being taken from them by the traffickers. And the ones who are forced into prostitution have it even worse 😞

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Kalinda's avatar

The 10% of the minors that end up in the homes of unrelated adults or distant relatives would be concerning for sure. I have known several migrant underage children living with siblings that were thrilled to have a job with money to send back home, even underpaid and under the table. If 90% get that, it looks good on paper. What the reality is we can't know unless someone can track down the unaccounted for children. That no one has a record of where those kids went is beyond disturbing.

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RunningLogic's avatar

Yeah we don’t have any idea how many are really living in situations like that 😕

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CHop's avatar

You have a lot to learn and it won't be easy on your soul. These children are working to pay off their "debt" to get here. In reality, they are intended slaves. If they aren't working in the meat packing plants (illegally), they will be used as sex slaves and then cut up for body parts. It is $150 B industry.

Putin worked to stop it in Ukraine. The industry just moves to a different location. Read this article twice. It's hard to digest:

https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/the-babies-who-are-murdered-to-order-7195092.html

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Jenn's avatar

So DHS can have a head start with articles like this!

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