The whole idea of America’s autonomy as a nation gets zero attention in a recent New York Times article about Francisco Cantu, author of The Line Becomes a River: Dispatches from the Border. Instead, the focus is on the anger of fellow Hispanics who see him as a snake who works for the evil American government, foiling the illegal aliens’ pursuit of free stuff in the welfare office to the north.

Despite being a “third-generation Mexican-American” as characterized in the piece, Cantu is expected by Hispanics to be loyal to his race, not to his nation of citizenship. This attitude should alert us to a strain of disloyalty among Hispanics who come for the dollars and little else. According to a 2012 Pew poll, only 21 percent of Hispanics say they frequently use the term “American” to describe their identity:

Interestingly, Cantu is an unlikely target of Mexican racists, since he is not a great enthusiast for the border, US sovereignty or anything American. A February 12 PBS Newshour report (How this former Border Patrol agent learned to see through the eyes of those trying to cross) revealed him to be more an academic observer than a friend of law enforcement:

CANTU: “I still have a lot of the same questions that I came into the Border Patrol with. I really see the border as, like, a microcosm for all of these huge issues that we’re grappling with as a nation and as a global society. And so I have no urge to look away from the border.”

What is completely missing from Cantu or the Times is any concern with the mission of the Border Patrol, namely to protect the United States from enemy jihadists and an invasion of job thieves. American workers have suffered decades of lowered wages and outright job loss because of excessive legal and illegal immigration — where’s the sympathy for them? There’s none at the New York Times, where traditional Americans are regarded as an inconvenient block to a diversity utopia run by Democrats.

The New York Times title for the piece is “Border Patrol Memoir Ignites Dispute: Whose Voices Should Be Heard From the Frontier?” while the reprint below emphasized the tribal angle — which reflects how liberals have so many complaints about borders and sovereignty.