Proyecto Visión 21

Who should we blame for all the problems facing American teenagers? Why so many teens do not perform well at school and are unable to find a job? Why so many teens misbehave? According to an elected official from Utah, the answer is simple: immigrants are the cause of all those problems.

Lynn Gillies, mayor of the small city of Fairfield (45 miles south of Salt Lake City) said last week immigrants are responsible for the bad present and possible dark future American teens are now facing.

This laughable argument should be promptly discarded because of its own absurdity, but it can’t be done so easily because Gillies shared her argument last week during an official meeting of the Interim Immigration Committee of the Utah Legislature, in charge of implementing the local immigration reform )based on SB08-81).

“I think what we have done is we have taken the jobs that our teenagers can handle, and get a work ethic, rather than standing around until they are 18 years old with their thumb up their nose wondering what am I going to do now?,” Gillies said.

In other words, if American teens can’t find a job or are undecided about their own future, it’s because immigrants are here.

Gillies based her statement in his three years of experience as the mayor of a city of no more than 1,000 people that lost half of its residents during the past 20 years and where (according to City-Data.com) there are only two Latinos, both American citizens.

In fact, according to the same source, the income of those two Latinos is $100,000 higher than the income of no-Latinos in the same city ($345,000 against $244,000). Perhaps local teens should follow the example of their two Latino neighbors.

Gillies also said immigrants do not speak English. However, in her own city, both Latinos are English-speakers and those who do not speak English are immigrants from Europe, mostly Italians, Germans, and Danes.

I am amazed that Utah legislators selected Gillies to testify on the issue of Latino immigration when only 30 people in Fairfield are not White and when Fairfield is a new town (it was incorporated in 2005.) In fact, according to the Office of the Vice Governor of Utah, Gillies was elected as mayor with only 28 votes. (That is, only 28 people voted for her.)

How is then possible for her to lecture the legislators and us about immigration and, even worse, blame immigrants for the problems of modern teenagers?

Before blaming immigrants, we should see what the parents, teachers, pastors, and priests of those teens are doing, and we should also carefully analyze the influence of media (with all its sexuality and violence) and technology in the shaping of a teenager’s mind.

Perhaps sooner than we think immigrants will also be blamed for the misbehavior of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and of alleged swindler Bernard Madoff.

It’s time to stop looking for scapegoats and, for a change. let’s assume our own responsibilities.