Take the case of Dennis Rivera Sarmiento, an illegal alien in danger of deportation for allegedly punching a schoolgirl in the head. Are you ready for some virtue-signaling ? Because here it comes!

It used to be that the liberal line was that all "migrants" are law-abiding and only the few "criminal" illegals should be deported. No longer. Now the liberal propaganda machine is on overtime to convince the public that any offense, even violent crimes, does not justify deportation.

As Dennis Rivera-Sarmiento sat in a detention center 80 miles away from his Texas home this past winter, clad in a blue inmate uniform, he could see his high school diploma slipping further from his reach. Graduation was in June, but a schoolyard scuffle with a girl who he said had called him a racial epithet had gotten him arrested by his high school's police officer. Then a state law that required the Harris County Sheriff's Office to cooperate with federal immigration officers flagged him for deportation, back to his native Honduras, from which he and his family had fled five years ago.

Note that if you stopped reading here, you would not have known that he was accused of punching a girl in the head, or that he had an existing court order for deportation that he had ignored. In journalism, that's called "burying the lede."

The case of the "quiet kid who was good at soccer" hauled from high school to a deportation center turned Mr. Rivera-Sarmiento into a cause célèbre in Houston[.] ... Students in the Stephen F. Austin High School community, where 93 percent of students are Hispanic, argued that Mr. Rivera-Sarmiento was also a victim[.]

Of course!

Mr. Downey said he was stunned when he learned of the arrest. He had met Mr. Rivera-Sarmiento, whom he described as timid, after he was reviewing a list of potentially college-bound students last year and realized that one with a 3.4 grade-point average had not applied to college. Mr. Rivera-Sarmiento went on to secure three acceptances.

Mr. Rivera-Sarmiento is timid and brilliant and can get into college apparently without even filling out applications.

Even Alyssa Milano is lobbying for his release. Perhaps she wouldn't mind being punched in the head by Mr. Rivera-Sarmiento, either. More from the L.A. Times – minor details that weren't deemed "fit to print" in The New York Times:

Court records say Rivera pushed down a girl and then struck her in the head with his fists, according to the Houston Chronicle. The Houston Independent School District said in a statement the girl was taken to a hospital and released but would not provide details of her injuries. Rivera entered the country without legal permission in 2013. Because he was arrested within the two weeks after he entered and within 100 miles of the border, he is subject to expedited removal, which can mean quick deportation without a hearing. He was instead released under ICE supervision and last checked in with ICE on Oct. 7, 2013, according to ICE. He was supposed to leave the country by March 4, 2014.

Mr. Rivera seems to have an unlimited number of Get Out of Jail Free cards.

I guess that if crimes against women don't matter, illegal aliens are more virtuous than feminists. Have a good look at this photo of Rivera Sarmiento, who looks like something straight out of central casting from The Warriors. Rather than protecting our kids from these hoodlums, liberals are embracing them.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at Newsmachete.com.