Eve Conant of Newsweek delivers a pleasant surprise this week when she minimizes the Hitler references and other hyperbole in discussing the new law.

Conant admits she’s no fan of the change, but 20 years of experience with family in Arizona offer her a perspective that’s a bit different from those who moan about “Nazis” and a new “apartheid state.” 

[S]pend some time in Arizona, and you may come to see why so many Arizonans want this.

It’s terrifying to live next door to homes filled with human traffickers, drug smugglers, AK-47s, pit bulls, and desperate laborers stuffed 30 to a room, shoes removed to hinder escape. During a month’s reporting with police and other law-enforcement agents in Arizona last year, I met many scared people. One man who lived next to a “drop house” for Mexican workers slept with two guns under his bed, his children not allowed to play in the backyard. The sound of gunshots was not uncommon. “Four years ago this neighborhood was poodles and old ladies,” he said, too frightened to give his name. “Now it’s absolutely insane.”