The New York Times just blew the lid off one of the ugliest realities about illegal immigration.
A Guatemalan illegal alien stole an American citizen's identity and used it for 15 years.
And the New York Times called the illegal alien a victim after he destroyed an American's life.
Times profiles identity thief and his victim as equals
The New York Times ran a lengthy profile about Dan Kluver, a 42-year-old factory worker from Olivia, Minnesota who spent four decades living a quiet life.¹
Kluver coached baseball, taught Sunday school, and never missed a payment on anything.
Then his world collapsed when an illegal alien from Guatemala stole his identity and spent 15 years using his name and Social Security number.
Romeo Pérez-Bravo got deported from the United States three times — in 2005, 2008, and 2009 — for crimes including DUIs and terroristic threats.²
Each time he snuck back across the border and bought a new stolen identity on the black market.
For over a decade, he worked factory jobs in Missouri under Kluver's name while the real Kluver faced tax bills for income he never earned.
The IRS pushed Kluver into higher tax brackets because Pérez-Bravo was making more money than Kluver's actual salary at a sugar beet factory.³
https://twitter.com/alexthechick/status/1992804276423496113?s=20
Kluver's wife emptied her savings to pay a $6,000 IRS bill in 2012 before their wedding.
The next year brought a $22,000 tax bill.⁴
Illegal alien's crime spree destroyed American family's finances
Kluver filed identity theft reports with federal authorities multiple times.
His complaints landed in a pile with tens of thousands of similar cases and nothing happened.
The identity theft followed Kluver everywhere — collection notices for debts he never incurred, licenses suspended in states he'd never visited, and years of fighting government bureaucracies that wouldn't help.
The damage kept mounting year after year with no relief in sight.
Then in 2022, Pérez-Bravo killed a 68-year-old grandfather in a car accident while driving under Kluver's name.⁵
The victim's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit — against Dan Kluver.
Think about that.
Kluver's facing legal liability for a death he had nothing to do with because some illegal alien stole his identity and the government did nothing to stop it for 15 years.
https://twitter.com/didumissthenews/status/1992823004003262557?s=20
Federal authorities finally arrested Pérez-Bravo in March 2025.⁶
He was charged with aggravated identity theft and illegal re-entry after getting deported three times.
Times turns criminal into sympathetic victim
Here's where the New York Times really shows its hand.
The paper dedicated half the article to painting Pérez-Bravo as some kind of hardworking family man just trying to get by.
The paper described how he worked graveyard shifts, packed school lunches for his five children, and attended church regularly.
The Times painted him as just trying to provide for his family — as if stealing someone else's identity for 15 years is an acceptable survival strategy.
The article soft-pedaled the catastrophic damage Pérez-Bravo inflicted on the Kluver family.
Kluver and his wife spent years fighting tax audits, watching their savings disappear, and making $150 monthly payments to the IRS for debts they didn't owe.⁷
But the Times wants readers to sympathize with Pérez-Bravo because he has five kids and goes to church.
The paper mentions that Pérez-Bravo paid $4,000 to an immigration lawyer only to learn he had no path to citizenship due to his criminal record.
Democrats and their media allies constantly claim illegal immigration is a "victimless crime" that helps the economy.
Tell that to Dan Kluver, who spent 15 years being financially destroyed by an illegal alien the government refused to remove.
This case reveals why President Trump's immigration enforcement is so desperately needed.
Pérez-Bravo was deported three times and kept coming back to commit more crimes.
A recent ICE operation at a Nebraska meatpacking plant uncovered 70 illegal aliens using stolen Social Security numbers, leaving more than 100 American victims facing "devastating financial, emotional and legal consequences."⁸
One disabled Texan couldn't get Social Security disability payments because an illegal alien was using his identity to work.
An IRS victim in Colorado got hit with a $5,000 tax bill after an illegal alien inflated his reported income.⁹
A nursing student lost college financial aid because it appeared she earned too much money — wages actually earned by someone using her stolen identity.
This isn't an immigration debate about economics or compassion — it's about American citizens being victimized by criminals who break into the country and steal identities to evade detection.
The New York Times and the rest of the corporate media want Americans to ignore these victims and focus on sob stories about illegal aliens who "just want a better life."
Dan Kluver wanted a better life too — the one he built through four decades of hard work before an illegal alien criminal stole it from him.
¹ Eli Saslow, "Two Men. One Identity. They Both Paid the Price," The New York Times, November 23, 2025.
² – ⁵ Ibid.
⁶ "Three Individuals Charged with Illegal Re-Entry and Other Offenses," Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General, April 25, 2025.
⁷ Saslow, The New York Times.
⁸ "ICE worksite enforcement operation uncovers widespread identity theft affecting more than 100 victims across the nation," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, June 18, 2025.
⁹ Ibid.
