Entering the U.S. without legal permission is breaking the law and, therefore, a crime. However, for decades now, leftists have effectively looked the other way and dismissed it as not really a crime based on the logic that these people are simply seeking a better life. Indeed, in many instances, they merely want better economic opportunities than they have in their home countries.

That said, this reality does not negate the fact that those who have entered the country illegally have broken our laws and have no right to reside or work here, period. The world is not America, despite the fact that Americans are made up of people who originated from places all over the world.

In America, as in every other country, citizenship matters. Noncitizens and foreigners don’t have a right to come and demand entry into the U.S. simply because they want to. Houses have doors and nations have borders for good reason.

Unfortunately, for far too long, Americans have elected leftist officials who have failed to recognize and protect this reality. Instead, they have treated citizens with disdain while suggesting that the true victims are those who do not have a legal right to live and work here. In this view, the true enemies are those who demand that national borders and boundaries exist and are maintained. In fact, Democrats and their increasingly radical leftist base see stopping illegal immigration and the upholding of our nation’s citizenship laws as somehow unjust or, at the very least, mean.

The latest example of this distorted view comes courtesy of a New York Times article titled, “Two Men. One Identity. They Both Paid the Price.” The teaser reads, “Thousands of undocumented workers rely on fraudulent Social Security numbers. One of them belonged to Dan Kluver.”

The article goes on to tell the story of an American, Dan Kluver, who grew up, lives, and works in a small rural Minnesota town, but for the past 20 years, he has been struggling as a victim of identity theft. The article notes that this identity theft has bankrupted Kluver, even threatening his freedom, and that he has been wholly innocent of any criminal activity.

Kluver was the victim of identity theft, and his victimizer was an illegal alien migrant from Guatemala who had purchased Kluver’s stolen ID and assumed it for himself. That illegal is named Romeo Perez-Bravo, and Kluver’s wasn’t the first ID he’d stolen. It turns out that Perez-Bravo has been living in the U.S. since he first illegally entered at age 16. Despite the fact that he had been deported three times before and had incurred a number of DUIs, the Times treated Perez-Bravo as the victim and not the criminal that he is.

How in the world could the Times frame Perez-Bravo as the victim when he has committed numerous crimes beyond his original illegal entry into the U.S.?

It boils down to worldview. The Left, which the Times clearly represents, has embraced the globalist view of world citizenship. In this view, national citizenship and borders themselves are subservient to the global citizenship of all mankind.

This also explains the nonsensical concept of multiculturalism, which promotes ethnic identity over and against meritocracy. It also explains the defense of soft-on-crime policies and, indeed, of socialism itself.

If people can’t be held to account for their behavior, then what results is the disintegration of social trust and ultimately lawless chaos.

The Times is going out of its way to muddy the waters of the illegal immigration issue and the Trump administration’s enforcement effort in the hopes of benefiting Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.