The use of children as laborers on the New York City Subway is becoming commonplace. City and state officials who were before proud of their progressive streak now shrug their shoulders and say, “Not my issue.” This is because child workers are considered sacred illegal immigrants.
Their mostly Ecuadorian families arrived in the Big Apple without resources or connections in the area, so they engage in straight-up child labor—selling candy bars and packs of gum to commuters—in the subways. On Wednesday, the New York Times published a story that any New Yorker would have suspected. The children, as young as seven years old, are involved.
Kids in the countries from which many of these migrants came routinely exercise in public during the week while their classmates are in school, taking advantage of the sympathy their actions generate to earn some extra money for their parents. This is something that people in first-world countries don’t often see.
“A social anthropologist from Quito, Soledad Álvarez Velasco, studies migration from Ecuador to the United States at the University of Illinois Chicago. It’s like a postcard from my country,” she said. There will always be mothers selling whatever they can, and you’ll often see them there with their children in tow. According to a July piece in New York Magazine on the same subject, she stated, “They’re doing precisely what they did at home” when asked about the situation in the US.
Despite Mayor Eric Adams’ (D) October statement in Ecuador that “In New York City, we do not let our children be in harmful conditions,” the Times reports that dozens of youngsters are still in such situations, and neither the city nor the state government is willing to take anything.
Despite the Times’ commendable efforts, none of the seven municipal and state entities contacted acknowledged responsibility for the issue of child labor in the subway system.
Several state agencies, including those dealing with education and labor, as well as those dealing with children and families, are reportedly uninterested in the matter, as reported in the Times.
Furthermore, the Times asserts that non-emergency calls do not result in the dispatch of police, the sole authority capable of responding in time to prevent the children’s movement.
As stated in the paper:
“Tackling the issue presents certain logistical challenges. Someone may have already relocated a candy vendor by the time the state hotline received a report, reviewed it, and forwarded it to A.C.S. The deployment of the police is usually reserved for times of extreme emergency due to their superior response time.
“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the agency in charge of the subways, sent any more questions to the police and City Hall, citing its regulation prohibiting unlawful commercial activity, which carries a $50 punishment.”
Unchecked criminal activity, however, produces even more criminal activity.
Turf battles are breaking out over train “territory,” according to New York Mag’s article. This is because an increasing number of migrants are venturing into the underground to compete for certain platforms.
Coworkers and their families have a tendency to watch out for each other, but that doesn’t mean they always get along. As more people start taking the trains, territorial issues are becoming more common. As they made their way along the F train platform, a young candy and drink vendor from Ambato, Ecuador, said something under his breath about a middle-aged man selling drinks from an ice cooler. He warned us that if we continue selling here, awful things will happen to us. That this is his domain and nobody else’s,'” according to New York Mag.
It was just last week when Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul deployed the National Guard to the subway system to ensure the safety of the workers in the area where they were operating. Even though there are foreign minors selling sweets illegally near them, the troops are still checking bags for the three million+ passengers who utilize the subterranean metro system every day.
The New York Subway has become a symbol of the left’s radical departure from the principles that gave rise to the modern Democratic Party. Under this system, the military patrols the subways, and gangs control the territory, exploiting children for illegal labor. Interestingly, the so-called “progressive” party of FDR remains silent on the matter.
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