A New York Times fact-check argues that “no, Democrats do not want ‘open borders.’” But it immediately and spectacularly falls flat because it fails to account for the unprecedented shift in liberal rhetoric and ignores the unmistakable new guard emerging on the Left.

The main fault of the fact check is the assumption that the current immigration debate is like everything before it. Anyone flipping through cable or scrolling through Twitter can see that this simply isn’t true. While both parties at least seemed to agree on the problem if not the solution in years past, liberals can’t even accept the humanity of conservatives who disagree with them.

President Trump has been compared to Hitler. The director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been compared to a Nazi. And former CIA Director Michael Hayden engaged in gross historical revisionism when he juxtaposed the temporary separation of adults and children on the U.S. southern border with the systematic genocide of the Holocaust.



Other governments have separated mothers and children pic.twitter.com/tvlBkGjT0h — Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) June 16, 2018

Some of these analogies are more about scoring shares and likes and retweets. As Jonathan Tobin points out at National Review though, even cheap Internet points come at a cost. They have reframed the debate so that anyone crossing the border, seeking asylum or otherwise, is the bizarre equivalent of a Holocaust victim.

“We’ve arrived,” Tobin argues, “at a point when the law and policy arguments about how best to enforce it have become irrelevant.” When ICE agents are refashioned as fascists and illegal aliens become default martyrs then “there is no more middle ground.”

Current Democratic leadership balks at this characterization as the New York Times piece noted. The next generation isn’t as shy in their support for open borders. Just go ask them.

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., isn’t on the fringe of the Left. He is the second ranking member of the Democratic National Committee and he basically wears his immigration policy on his sleeve. More specifically, the No. 2 Democrat wore a T-Shirt that literally said “I don’t believe in borders.”



Liberals: No one is calling for open borders



The next Attorney General of Minnesota: pic.twitter.com/Cs1eM2xM7R — Brett Banditelli (@banditelli) June 21, 2018

Cynthia Nixon is an insurgent to be sure. Her challenge of Andrew Cuomo for the Democratic nomination for New York governor is quickly making her an all-star. "Time's up on progressive change and waiting for progressive change in New York," Nixon said in April before the border crisis even began.

And what would that progressive change look like? Drivers licenses for illegal aliens and turning New York into “a sanctuary state.” Nixon hasn’t called for abolishing the border just yet. Still it’s obvious she wants to make it meaningless for anyone who has already crossed over it illegally.



While focusing on what’s happening at the border, we must also fight to keep families together here at home. We have to stand with Debora and her children, and all the other New York families living in daily fear of being torn apart. We must make New York a real sanctuary state. — Cynthia Nixon (@CynthiaNixon) June 21, 2018

The most honest voice on the Left is also the newest. A left-wing, Bernie Sanders volunteer named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just offed Rep. Joe Crowley, the New York Democrat who was waiting in the wings to take over for Nancy Pelosi. Young and earnest at just 28-years-old, Ocasio-Cortez ran on a simple far-left platform that included abolishing ICE.

The progressive darling made the rounds on cable Wednesday to introduce the rest of the country to the message that had just helped her win in New York the night before. Abolishing ICE wasn’t just a question of enforcement at the border. It is about enforcing a redefined idea of the border itself.



"We are committing human rights abuses on this border in separating children from their families," says New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has called for ICE to be abolished https://t.co/O7YjaapXeX pic.twitter.com/YV2uDnwZHB — CNN (@CNN) June 27, 2018

"We are committing human-rights abuses on this border in separating children from their families and that, you know, is part of the structure of the agency," Ocasio-Cortez told CNN. "We can replace it with a humane agency that is directed towards safe passage instead of the direction of the criminalization."

The policy of Ocasio-Cortez and the growing number who agree with her is one where enforcement of White House policy makes ICE agents not just cruel but actually inhumane. Her solution requires a completely new agency and a completely new vision of the border where border patrol become travel agents instead of law enforcement. They won’t deter anyone entering illegally. Instead they will offer “safe passage.”

Whether the New York Times admits it or not, the new Left is headed in one direction and that’s towards open borders.