Quote of the Day

"Lobbyists regularly cajole and push legislators across the country to protect the interests of their wealthy clients, whether that means passing legislation or doing nothing. Many corporations and even individuals have the resources to make sure their viewpoints get heard. Nothing wrong with that.

"But in a country in which money increasingly means access, one must remember constantly that there are vast portions of the U. S. population whose voices are not heard, even disregarded. There are plenty of Americans who fall into this category. But last week, a reporter for the Northwest Arkansas Times reported that there’s a whole other group of people getting slammed out there in our neck of the woods. It’s no surprise this group collectively would be known as immigrants.

"The people at the Northwest Arkansas Workers’ Justice Center say immigrants, legal and illegal, are highly vulnerable to unscrupulous employers, those who work them and then don’t pay them. Some, they say, hire immigrants with the full intent to never pay them. …Several of those who come in search of assistant do so complaining about wage theft and job injury. . . .

"But beyond economics, there’s social justice. Protecting the weakest and most vulnerable in our society has a long history in the United States. Sometimes, that concept seems to be on shaky ground these days, but in general, people can still understand the idea of a safety net and the necessity of measures to discourage the strong from abusing the weak. . . .

"Ultimately, this is about human beings who are being mistreated, and those who are enriching themselves by exploiting immigrants, legal and illegal, deserve to be punished for their unethical and immoral acts."

--Editorial, "Abuse at the Bottom," Northwest Arkansas Times