Last week’s issue of People magazine has a brief article about Liliana Plata, an illegal alien from Mexico who allegedly entered the Air Force by pretending to be Cristina Alaniz, a student at Texas State University. According to news reports, Plata was able to join the Air Force using identity documents she had purchased on the black market in Los Angeles for about $2,000. Plata argues that she should be spared punishment for fraud, and be spared punishment for violating our immigration laws, and be spared for deceiving the U.S. government because she served honorably in Iraq. A lot of soft-headed, open borders sympathizers agree with her.

Coverage of this fiasco has focused on the awful nightmare the real Cristina Alaniz has faced in trying to recover her identity and restore her good name. But the more important issue here is the national security lapse on the part of the military. How the hell did they let Plata in with her bogus ID? Is anybody being held accountable? The last we heard on this was back in May, when the Austin American-Statesman reported on the case:

Airman Alaniz’s ability to use false documents — a Social Security card and a birth certificate — to join the Air Force raises a troubling question: Could terrorists or other U.S. enemies use the same method to infiltrate the military?

“I was concerned this was an espionage case,” said Austin police Detective Andrew Perkel. “If someone is in the military under an assumed identity, it raises the question why.”

Air Force and Pentagon officials did not comment on that question Thursday. An Air Force spokesman said recruits go through extensive background checks, performed by the military and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and must show a Social Security card, driver’s license and a birth certificate…

“Extensive?” More on P.C. insanity at the Pentagon here.