And that is precisely the problem with folks like the editorialists at the New York Times -- they don't recognize that foreigners who enter our country illegally are not Americans with as much right, legally or morally, to be in the United States. And that fuzzy-minded thinking leads to editorials like this one today.

Almost a year ago, hundreds of thousands of immigrant workers and their families slipped out from the shadows of American life and walked boldly in daylight through Los Angeles, Washington, Chicago, New York and other cities. “We Are America,” their banners cried. The crowds, determined but peaceful, swelled into an immense sea. The nation was momentarily stunned.

A lot has happened since then. The country has summoned great energy to confront the immigration problem, but most of it has been misplaced, crudely and unevenly applied. It seeks not to solve the conundrum of a broken immigration system, but to subdue, in a million ways, the vulnerable men and women who are part of it. Government at all levels is working to keep unwanted immigrants in their place — on the other side of the border, in detention or in fear, toiling silently in the underground economy without recourse to the laws and protections the native-born expect.

Oh, yes -- the problem is clearly all of us evil Americans who want our borders respected and our laws enforced. The problem isn't, if you live in the ritzy neighborhoods inhabited by denizens of the NY Times newsrooms and editorial offices, the border-jumping immigration criminals. It is the fact taht the American government is responding to what the American people say they want. Because you see -- the American people are not America, the illegals are.

The editorial then goes on through the litany of "evils" engaged in by the American government and people over the last year -- stricter enforcement of our borders, efforts by state and local government to see discourage illegal immigration and its associated negative impact on communities, fast-track deportation proceedings for those who have no right to be in America in the first place, tracking of immigration criminals and compiling a database on them, increased immigration fees and "the rise of hate" (like the KKK, long the paramilitary wing of the DemocratICK Party, has ever needed a reason to propagate its malignant views). In short, the paper makes it clear that it is much more supportive of lawbreakers than lawmakers and the citizens they respond to.

Which leads, of course, to the bleeding of the hearts of the entire editorial board.

Hopelessly fixated on toughness, the immigration debate has lost its balance, overlooking the humanity of the immigrant. There is a starkly diminished understanding that hospitality for the stranger is part of the American ethos, and that as much as we claim to be a nation of immigrants, we have thwarted them at every turn. We must do better.

The new year began with renewed optimism for the chances of sensible immigration reform in Washington. The hope is justified, but time is short and real change will still require boldness and courage. Citizenship must be the key to reform. The idea of an earned path to citizenship for illegal immigrants was missing from President Bush’s State of the Union address this year, though he has continued to say his usual favorable words about reform. The new Democratic Congress and moderate Republicans cannot be afraid to stand up to the anti-amnesty demagogues and lead Mr. Bush to a solution.

Enforcement of laws cannot be ignored. Punish immigrants who enter illegally, make them pay back taxes and fines, restrict their ability to get work through deceit and false identities. But open a path to their full inclusion in the life of this country.

The alternative — the path of immigrant exploitation, of harassment without hope — will only repeat the ways the country has shamed itself at countless points in its history.

Oh, yes, that's right -- anyone who disagrees with the NY Times is a hate-filled demagogue out to exploit and harass the poor, hopeless illegals who are the victim of a desire to protect America's sovereignty and enforce America's laws. Anyone with a position to the right of the NY Times simply needs to be ignored as irrelevant by the "responsible" acolytes of illegal immigration rights -- because it is the illegals and their needs that should have priority, not the will of the American people. At least in the left-wing mindset of the NY Times.

But, as usual, the NY Times has it wrong in their fundamental premise about illegal immigrants who jump our border in violation of our laws and sovereignty.

They are NOT America.

We, the People of the United States are America-- and we want secure borders now.