One thing that Americans on both ends of the political spectrum can agree on is that the immigration system currently in place in this country is broken. No one on either side of the aisle seems to be happy with the way things stand now, and in the 2016 presidential election this issue came to the forefront. To build, or not to build, became the question, with all due apologies to a certain English playwright.

Yet for all of the ink spent on debating the merits of building or not building a wall on the southern border with Mexico, Americans continued to do what we do best: arguing over small aspects of a larger problem without ever getting to the real root of the matter. Very little of that ink (or whatever the equivalent to ink is for an online article) went towards discussing Comprehensive Immigration Reform, of which border security is just one aspect, albeit perhaps the single most important aspect. Instead, both sides hurled insults and meaningless slogans at one another over whether or not the so-called “wall” should be built.

Of course, nothing was settled. No one had their opinion swayed by the other side’s rants. And progress on fixing our broken immigration system made no advancement whatsoever. That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, America has been facing the exact same immigration issues for a long time now and hasn’t felt the need to discuss any of these issues like adults in the past, so how can one expect that suddenly during the circus that was the 2016 campaign season that we were suddenly going to get serious and take a real look at all of the factors that comprise Comprehensive Immigration Reform. Not bloody likely, someone with a British accent might conclude.

Which brings us to the problem in Arizona. For a long time, Arizona, and other states that actually have a shared border with Mexico, have been left out to dry by the rest of the country. While we as a country sit on our ass and do nothing, Arizona still has to deal with the realities on the ground of that border. So awhile back, the biggest county in Arizona, the one that includes Phoenix and some other areas with large populations, elected Sheriff Arpaoi, and he began making national news with some of his controversial immigration law enforcement strategies. A good chunk of America didn’t like it. Laws were passed, like Arizona SB1070, portions of which were eventually struck down by the Supreme Court. Police began cracking down on suspected illegal immigrants under Sheriff Joe’s direction, and suddenly the liberals in our country were in an uproar. Valid issues were raised over how exactly a law enforcement officer should be allowed to stop, question and potentially arrest suspected illegal immigrants.

So once again, the media and the populace were screaming at each other over one area of Comprehensive Immigration Reform while still refusing to actually fix the entire broken system. The outrageous part of it all was that the rest of the country was screaming at the state of Arizona! Some wanted the Arizona law enforcement and criminal justice system to go after illegal immigrants even more than they were doing, others were outraged by the actions of Sheriff Arpaoi and his department. But how can people living in the northeast and the rest of the country bitch and moan the way they did (for lack of a more eloquent phrase) about Arizona implementing laws and procedures to deal with a serious problem in their state when we, the rest of America, have failed our fellow state so miserably by refusing to pass any form of Comprehensive Immigration Reform?! It’s quite easy for the rest of us as a nation to sit comfortably in our states that don’t border Mexico and tell the states that do how to handle the many issues and problems that arise from being a border state. Arrogantly pointing out perceived flaws in how Arizona was handling border issues, and how the taxpayers of that state should use their tax dollars so that the person sitting in New York, Washington D.C., or elsewhere throughout the country could feel better about themselves, as if they really understood the pressures being faced by the border communities, was nothing short of a betrayal of our collective duties to every state in the union. The country did nothing to fix a problem, Arizona felt they had reached the breaking point, and wrong or right they decided to take action. And then we yelled at them for it. Think about that for a moment.

It is time that this country has a thorough conversation about the entire system that makes up Comprehensive Immigration Reform. From beginning to end. Border security, path to citizenship, identifying and removing illegals, enforcement, funding, and all the many complicated issues surrounding each of those aspects and more . It is time to stop screaming the meaningless chants back and forth at each other over whether or not there should be a wall when we need to fix the whole system top to bottom, not just any one part of it. As a country, we at least owe that to the states on the front line.