Not merely content with having illegal aliens who haven't committed additional crimes being allowed to stay in the U.S., liberals have raised the bar and now insist that illegal aliens and legal immigrants convicted of serious crimes not be deported, either.  The New York Times has produced the perfect sympathetic poster girl: Lundy Khoy, a refugee with a perfect, virtuous life who was convicted of possessing a tiny amount of narcotics...or so she claims.

Entering the country as a Cambodian refugee, the author states:

The three of us were typical American kids, eating Cheerios for breakfast and taking the bus to school. We went to Disneyland and religiously watched the Fourth of July fireworks from the beach. As a teenager I attended school dances in all of their crepe glory.  I am not an American citizen, but there is no way I am not an American.

She eats cereal, watches fireworks, and goes to school dances!  Does that entitle her to sell drugs and stay in America?

 In the spring of 2000, I was walking along the street with an American-born friend when we were stopped by a police officer. I was carrying seven tablets of Ecstasy. I was arrested for possession with intent to sell, which is a felony in Virginia. On the advice of my lawyer — and feeling that a trial would increase my family’s suffering and embarrassment — I pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years in jail.

She was not a drug dealer; she was just embarrassed!  Or is there more to this story?  The WaPo reveals:

By the time she started college, she was thirsting for more freedom and took up with a “bad crowd,” she said, adding that because she didn’t want her mother to think she was using drugs, she falsely told the arresting officer that she planned to sell the pills to her friends, a statement that resulted in a more serious charge.

Are we supposed to believe Khoy falsely confessed to a more serious crime?  After this apparent lie about a lie, I have to wonder if the police didn't find more than just seven pills.  Anyway, back to the story.

Then, in 2004, I went for what I thought was a routine visit to my probation officer. I had even brought along my most recent report card to show the growth I had made. What I encountered was a multitude of officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, instructing me to hand over my possessions and stand spread-eagle against the wall.

The ecstasy dealer was spread-eagled!  Even worse:

… they [placed] an ankle bracelet on her, which caused more public humiliation for her[.] 

The ecstasy dealer felt publicly humiliated.

 I was dumbstruck. I had been following all the rules. I could not understand why I was being arrested again. Immigration officers eventually informed me that my conviction meant I would most likely be deported from the United States.

The former drug dealer followed all the rules...except the one about selling narcotics.  She doesn't seem to realize that illegal aliens, refugees, and immigrants are held to a higher standard because becoming a citizen of the United States isn't a natural right for everyone on the globe.  You have to earn it and conform to reasonable standards.  One of those standards is not selling narcotics.

Khoy feels entitled to a "do over" when there are thousands of people waiting legally to come into our country who have never sold narcotics and are a lot more virtuous than Ms. Khoy.  But Ms. Khoy, and her liberal supporters in the media, feel that the minor punishment she suffers makes her a martyr.  Can you imagine how terrible it is to force a drug dealer to spread her legs and have an ankle bracelet attached?  She feels entitled to American citizenship because she eats cereal here.  She sold narcotics and yet claims she "followed all the rules."

I don't know what's more ridiculous: her sense of entitlement or the New York Times promoting a drug-dealing immigrant as the poster girl of virtue.

Ed Straker is the senior writer at NewsMachete.com.