Once a few years back, I was hiking with my family in the Black Hills of South Dakota. When we finally made it to the top, I peered over the sheared off rock edge to catch a glimpse of the drop-off, and felt my center of gravity shift. I quickly moved back as I felt my stomach leap into my throat.

Had I not moved, I’m relatively certain I would have fallen off.

Indulge me here for a moment: if I never lean over the edge of a cliff, I’m never going to lose my balance and fall off a cliff. Even better, if I never hike up a hill or mountain, I’m guaranteed to never be killed by falling off a cliff. That’s a fact.

Like I said, indulge me.

If Cristhian Bahena Rivera had not entered the country illegally, Mollie Tibbits would be alive today.

Period. Full stop.

But instead of focusing on something that is preventable and fixable, the American left (and our ever-ready media) has decided instead to place the blame on anything BUT.

I’ve seen articles that focus on who owned the farm Rivera worked on (hint, USA Today tried to connected it to a minor Republican politician in a bid to try and make the right look hypocritical for supposedly hiring an illegal alien).

I’ve seen it blamed on the problem of “toxic masculinity.”

I’ve seen articles touting that immigrants (illegal or otherwise) commit fewer crimes on average than their citizen counterparts.

I’ve seen pieces on the “squalor” living conditions at the house Rivera was living.

I’ve even seen several outlets release pieces like “Mollie Tibbetts’ Family Is Pushing Back Against Trump And His Allies After They Seized On Her Death,” (but buried deep in the piece is the fact that this “family” is a cousin who  herself admits that “she and Tibbetts weren’t close”.)

Here’s the deal.

It doesn’t matter who owned the farm. It literally could have been President Trump himself in the biggest display of blatant hypocrisy—and it still doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter whether Rivera was a classic example of toxic machismo (see what I did there?); it doesn’t matter if he was a grunting Neanderthal whose parents never raised him to understand that no is no, and that *maybe* killing a girl isn’t the solution to a rejected proposition.

It doesn’t matter if Rivera was the only illegal immigrant to EVER commit a violent crime in the nation’s history.

It doesn’t matter if he lived on a park bench and ate dirt.

It doesn’t matter what Mollie’s cousin’s political views are.

It doesn’t matter. None of it matters because that’s not the point. He was here.

That’s the point.

He was here to commit a crime he wouldn’t have been here to commit had he not broken the law to come here to then present false identification to his employer.

It’s not about race, sexism, bigotry, or unfairness.

It’s about the fact that he was here.

It’s really just that simple.

Mary Ramirez is a full-time writer, creator of www.afuturefree.com (a political commentary blog), and contributor to The Chris Salcedo Show on KSEV 700. She can be reached at: afuturefree@aol.com; or on Twitter: @AFutureFree