Jackson Hole News

A freely available OPINION

Turning a Blind Eye to Reality

By Gil Brady, 7-16-07

JACKSON, Wyo.-- It would be nice to believe the “I’m okay, you’re okay, let’s all get along” rose-tinted view of immigration and bootstraps entrepreneurship as recently portrayed by a certain local alternative weekly.

Unfortunately, reality is a bitch. And a tough one, apparently, to report on.

In a breathlessly Pollyannish assertion, devoid of any recent legal history or nuance, the periodical, Planet Jackson Hole, reported: “But things have changed. In the past decade, a river of immigrants mostly from Mexico and Colombia has washed over the formerly homogeneous valley, helping to support Jackson Hole’s booming service and tourist-based economy.”

In all that washing and rinsing, the Planet certainly got one thing right: Jackson Hole’s demography has changed dramatically over the last ten years.

As has its violent crime profile.

In fact, according to the most recent U.S. Census, Latinos and Hispanics in Teton County now make up roughly 6 percent of the Eqaulity state’s estimated 34,505 documented men, women and children from south of the border who reside in Wyoming.

Other federal data also suggests positive news: Latinos and Hispanics are the largest business-owners of any ethnic minority in the state. A point well-illustrated by the efforts of the reporter to check the names on business permits, dovetailed with the Planet’s patriotic-sounding July 4th article “Taking Root”.

However, what the paper got wrong was their entirely business-friendly politicized slant of universal integration and law-abiding citizenship among Latinos and Hispanics.

Truth be told, significant criminal elements within this same ethnic group are arriving in our state and county in droves — driving up crime, particularly human-trafficking, sexual assaults and rapes in Teton County.

As one local law enforcement official recently said, when asked to explain what had led to the 207 percent jump in rapes here over the last four years, “Women in Mexico are apparently not regarded with the same level of respect accorded women in the United States. We’re not going to change our values to accommodate a culture that condones the abuse of women on any level.”

This inconvenient fact of an immigrant-related rise in untoward crimes certainly doesn’t play well with either Jackson’s business-community or some of its elected leaders.

A portion of whom share the blame for either greedily hiring illegal immigrants without first demanding to see their work visas. Or worse, approving the business license of those police warned were here illegally and up to no good.

Thus, creating the situation of last year’s child prostitution and human-trafficking ring. The endgame of which, like the lives of two of at least three young women pimped-out by a business-license toting coyote, is still all unknown.

This kind of official rubber-stamping out of fear of being called a “racist,” or losing votes from powerful and selfish constituents, while ignoring the concerns of law enforcement and public safety, has created a dangerous pull factor into the Valley that says, “Smuggling in human cargo and illegal labor for cheap kicks and quick bucks is A-Ok with the big shots.”

Like other county honchos to our south who sold out to the fast-paced economic seductions of the energy industry, and are now dealing with skyrocketing rates of out-of-state Anglos who are buying and dealing meth, chasing hookers and committing violent crimes, Jackson is reaping the whirlwind of its “See no evil, hear no evil” anything goes immigration policy.

How long will the local touro-barons continue to call the shots on cheap and illegal labor while damning to hell the tragic social costs?

News stories of immigrant success have a proud tradition as a pastime that reinforces what has made America great. And Ms. Rice has the instincts of a great reporter for going out and getting an unsung story that deserved to be told. Having worked at the Planet, I can imagine the pressures shaping the story she might have told.

But a little balance by also reporting on the downside of the county’s obvious open-armed embrace of its immigration boom would have made a good story great.

First, by showing the genuine humanity of Mr. Lopez’s and Mr. Alemanza’s hard won successes within the broader, unbiased context of the local immigration scene. And secondly, by doing what papers are supposed to do: inform their readers without prejudice, instead of whitewashing over some of the ugly truth to fit the recklessly elitist, feel-good views of their owners and advertisers.

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