Forget barbarians at the gates, what seems to be more disturbing is the current trend of catching middle eastern men and women crossing through our "well protected" southern border.

Michelle Malkin puts forth this question in a post "What's the Spanish Word for "Terrorist"?" and another beautiful encapsulation "Terrorists Don't Stop at the Rio Grande":

Does unfettered illegal immigration from Mexico increased America's vulnerability to a major terrorist attack on our soil? Or is this argument a red herring cooked up by anti-Latino xenophobes to serve an anti-immigrant agenda ...

From the Tombstone Tumbleweed (hehe love the name) we get this little gem:

... seasoned Border Patrol field agents have shared some disturbing information with the Tumbleweed as well as other civilian sources with the hope the information will make it to the general public.

The Tumbleweed has verified information that a flood of middle-eastern males have been caught entering the country illegally east of Douglas, Arizona. ...

For reasons of National security, Adame said his agency cannot talk about the origin of nationaity, however Adame says that since October 1, 2003, the beginning of the fiscal year for Border Patrol, agents in the Tucson sector have apprehended 5,510 illegals from countries other than Mexico or other central or South American countries. Adame described them as “people from all over the world”.

From the Brownsville Herald we get this nice comforting comment:

Middle Easterners with possible terrorist ties have been detained after entering the country from Mexico but released for lack of jail space, said U.S. Rep. Solomon P. Ortiz, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness.

“It is true. It is very reliable information, from the horse’s mouth, and it’s happening all over the place,” Ortiz, D-Texas, told The Herald on Thursday.

“It’s very, very scary, and members (of Congress) know about this. We have contacted several agencies, and I have talked to some people, but I can’t say who.”

Over here we get some more good news:

Congressman John Culberson (R - TX), speaking on the John and Ken show in Los Angeles, tells the hosts that he's now authorized, for the first time anywhere, to disclose that Middle Eastern men with Al Qaeda links have been mixing with the stream of illegal aliens coming in via the Southern US border.

Having changed their names from Islamic to Hispanic ones, and having obtained authentic Mexican Matricula Consular ID cards using faked Mexican birth certificates, the men are paying up to $30,000 to obtain entry into the US among the flow of Hispanic illegal aliens crossing.

From ABC news we hear this:

The FBI has arrested an American citizen living in Queens said to be a sleeper agent for Al Qaeda. ... The man has told investigators that Al Qaeda is planning more attacks in the United States. He has also revealed a scheme to smuggle terrorists across the Mexican border.

So the re-worded question then comes again "Is it racist to close the border more or is it a smart thing to do with the continued intelligence pointing to terrorists seeking this method of entry into the US?"

We can't continue to leave ourselves so much of a target. The only people who would possibly want to not monitor the southern border and require all people entering through it to have proper identification are people who want law breakers in our country. It's a cut and dry argument and there is no rebuttal. The real re-worded question is "Do you think the US should make sure people coming here are the good guys?" the only answer is yes.

There are however those who would answer no, like this over at Deans World:

... we should be doing more to protect our borders. Then again, I have to note that ... the suspected terrorist was caught, which hardly makes this incident compelling evidence that our law-enforcement authorities are failing to catch terrorists coming up out of Mexico.

We caught one, I guess that means we're done now and can have open borders and close our intelligence agencies.

Bill Hobbs has a nice roundup of things and some thought provoking comments here and here

Other bloggers:
Backcountry Conservative
Right Thinking on the Left Coast