Over Memorial weekend, I had an opportunity to visit my family in Arizona in celebration of my baby brother graduating high school. It’s a big step in ones life and it seemed to be a perfect excuse to leave the life I have in Utah for a few days and enjoy something new. Utah’s weather has been less than desirable and the prospects of spending a few days in 100 degree weather was truly exciting… and enjoyed.
As I was making my way down Superstition Highway to my destination in Gilbert, sun beating down upon our bodies as we adjusted to a 50 degree temperature difference, concluding a twelve and a half hour drive throughout the night, and dealing with three children just waking up from an uncomfortable slumber (one of which got car sick and on the verge of regurgitating), I couldn’t help but enjoy the experience.
A few short days later, it ended. The trip was over. Prematurely.
With the intention of staying a few extra days, our vacation ended in the most shocking way possible. On a joy ride through Phoenix and the surrounding cities in which I spent a good chunk of my young adult time and revisiting my stomping grounds of days long gone, we were pulled over by an officer performing his duties with a routine traffic stop. But this was anything but routine. Noticing my plates were from Utah, the officer in question approached my opened window and asked for my papers. One would suspect a driver’s license, proof of insurance, and car registration. I was mistaken. While he took a look at the documents I provided him, he asked again for my papers. Apparently what he was looking for was my Proof of Arizona residency which I could not provide. Granted, my driver’s license clearly stated Utah, but there was a chance that I had moved and had yet to gain the necessary documents to prove that I was a new Arizona citizen. Needless to say, we were deported. Our vacation cut short as we were escorted back to the Arizona/Utah border and thrown across it like we were yesterday’s trash.
We would have liked to gain a temporary permit, but the process was mired with one hoop after another. A staggering realization was to learn that these hoops one must take to gain a mere temporary permit were far more painful for Utah residents, a long drawn out process that would have taken several years for a week’s stay, than for a resident of Nevada. For some reason, Utahn’s are discriminated against but Nevada folk are able to easily obtain the required paperwork for crossing their state border. Discrimination at it’s finest!
My family complied as we had broken a “State Law.” We faced our punishment and were forced back over the border. We had spent several hundred dollars to boost Arizona’s struggling economy, from gas to food to clothes and other vacation items. By all accounts we were law abiding tourists, but we didn’t gain the “papers” the state had requested of us. A Colorado man accompanied us on our journey of being transported to the Arizona/Utah border. He explained that he had tried to gain the papers needed but the process of jumping through that hoop and this hoop was followed with years of waiting. Still, he tried to pass as one of “them”, gained employment, paid taxes and once again helped boost the state’s economy. That didn’t matter. They saw him for what he was: An illegal immigrant.
The sad truth of the matter is, we are all illegal immigrants. Our ancestors weren’t born here. They crossed over from NAME YOUR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN HERE and arrived on the land of what would eventually be called America at some point in their lives. Maybe this was during the time of Christopher Columbus. Maybe your ancestors were on a pilgrimage at some later year following the New World discovery. Maybe your distant relatives made port in New York and their first sign of freedom was looking up at the Statue of Liberty.
Whatever the situation was, you do not belong here. American’s have killed, tortured, and basically banished the true natives of our land over the centuries. All in the name of Freedom. We took New Mexico, Arizona, and California form Mexicans… forcefully… and continue to do the same thing.
What is it accomplishing? In my time in Arizona over Memorial weekend, I witnessed and heard some astonishing statements towards illegal residents. The current political climate in Arizona is not helping anything but is instead fueling hatred, animosity, and discrimination that only hurts and tears down what has taken years to build. My own ancestors, who came to America for whatever reason would have been sent back, or incarcerated, or killed. What type of implications would that have had on us as a country? Where would I be had that been the norm instead of allowing immigrants safe and lawful passage? Where would any of us be?
As I said before, there are ways to lawfully gain the required paperwork to keep my family from having our vacation cut short, but the process is flawed. Us Utah folk are discriminated against, making it difficult to gain what we need for safe passage. There is something dreadfully wrong with the system and it needs fixing rather than destroyed. Sadly it is being destroyed. That’s the cold hard truth of the matter: Arizona is not helping the situation but making it worse. The domino effect results in hate and discrimination against not only races but soon different creeds, colors, and religions. When will it stop? When will America wake up and realize what makes our country great?
When my family and I were tossed over the border, I noticed something that I didn’t notice during my drive down; a giant cement wall was being constructed on the Arizona side. I couldn’t help but to see a glimpse of the future, a vision or a prophecy of things yet to come. I heard the voice of a Man speaking to a mass crowd, reciting but altering the words of a President that many have adored (for reasons I’ll never know). He spoke the following:
“Behind me stands a wall that encircles the free sectors of this state, part of a vast system of barriers that divides the entire state of Arizona. From Mexico, south, to Utah, north, those barriers cut across the United States in a gash of barbed wire, concrete, dog runs, and guard towers. In some places, there may be no visible wall. But there remain armed guards and checkpoints all the same- still a restriction on the right to travel, still an instrument to impose upon ordinary men and women the will of a totalitarian state.”
This goes on for several minutes, continuing with his stern call proudly declaring, “Ms. Brewer, tear down this wall!”
Obviously the above account of my vacation are fictitious. It didn’t happen. But if we continue down this road, to continue breeding hate, discrimination, and hostility in the name of Freedom for our Nation, there will be more than a metaphorical wall that surrounds or separates us. That is not what American stands for. That is not who we are. “This wall must fall. For it cannot withstand faith; it cannot withstand truth. The wall cannot withstand freedom.“
