I can remember the first visit I ever made to the state of Arizona.

Flying in at night, there isn’t too much you can tell of the state’s landscape except that for a girl like me, it’s a far cry from the comfort of a crowded Manhattan. Get past the glitter of the airport and the center of downtown Phoenix and the lights are fewer and farther.

Nothing like Times Square at two in the morning, a proverbial kaleidoscope.

Instead, the darkness fills the space between.

Between what exactly, you won’t find out until morning.

In the morning, light spills out over the mountains that hug the horizon and you can see and feel everything around you – the air, the sun, the earth.

Always visible, like framework, those mountains emphasize the space between you and just about everything else. Arizona is a blend of life and space. It gives you a sense of where you fit into the world.

The state holds within it some of the rawest of realities. Its ecological challenges are evident and in contrast. There is the vastness and the dryness of the valley and vitality of the snow-capped mountains. And for those who think Arizona is all prickly cacti and grassless dessert, the northern part of the state is as green as any other.

The state has a distinct feel to it and a distinct culture. Like something old lives there and the people are proud of that. Something authentic. A piece of America that you can’t quite describe. Maybe that’s just me. At a time in my life when I felt completely surrounded, the state saved me by showing me what space feels like.

It is also a state plagued. Plagued by a detrimental immigration problem and now, plagued by criticism for its choice in trying to handle it.

Here’s what disturbs me about criticism raining down on the immigration legislation that was recently signed off on by the governor in a rather gutsy move last Friday.

What disturbs me is that while critics are screaming at the top of their lungs, they seem to have forgotten that the legislation is designed to combat an incredible illegal immigration problem that spills into the country often through Arizona’s ineffective borderline. A problem federal officials have obviously not given enough effort into fixing.

What disturbs me is that those critics seem to have forgotten that the problem spreads throughout the country.

The problem is not intolerance to a certain people. It’s intolerance to those who choose not to simply obtain the necessary paperwork to enter the country, as we all must do when we want to go live and work in another country, or to account for themselves but simply ignore all the rules while demanding their need for equality.

One article compared the current immigration law to civil rights abuses on African-Americans during the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. The author actually compared moving to crack down on those who come into the country illegally to complete and total American citizens denied rights in their own country based on their race alone.

It’s just not the same thing. And to compare illegal immigrants trying to get a government they’re not even willing to fill out some paperwork for to afford them the same rights as natural citizens who were so inexcusably treated as horribly as they were in their own country during that time, is an insult to the pain and suffering they endured.

Here’s what confuses me about the situation in Arizona. The legislation might just work. It might just allow for authorities to have those here illegally dealt with. Or it could drive all of those streaming into the country through Arizona out into the rest of the nation.

And then maybe when some state with a lot of blue votes starts complaining things will sound different. Or it might just annoy everyone so much (as it seems to be doing) they’ll actually address the problem.

We carry our driver’s licenses, we obtain social security cards and passports. And when we’re in a foreign country, living and working and making a life for ourselves and an officer of their law asks to see verification to be in their country, I can’t think of anything to be afraid of or ashamed of that would stop me from producing those papers.

It would be nice to think of a country wide open, airy, hugged by mountains and settled under a blue sky where everyone could just come and go as they please, no need for rules, accountability or verification. Unfortunately we all know by now such a country would open itself to a multitude of problems.

America may be the land of the free … but freedom is not and never has been free.
Or exempt from that pesky paperwork.
Fight on, Arizona.

Jessica Sieff is a reporter for the Niles Daily Star. Reach her at
jessica.sieff@leaderpub.com.