Here's something I think will turn out to be one of those now-you-see-it-now-you-don't stories -- a report that Chechen terrorists may be crossing into the United States via the Mexican border:

U.S. security officials are investigating a recent intelligence report that a group of 25 Chechen terrorists illegally entered the United States from Mexico in July.

The Chechen group is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorists seeking to separate the southern enclave of Chechnya from Russia, according to officials familiar with intelligence reports.

Members of the group, said to be wearing backpacks, secretly traveled to northern Mexico and crossed into a mountainous part of Arizona that is difficult for U.S. border security agents to monitor, said officials speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The intelligence report was supplied to the U.S. government in late August or early September and was based on information from an intelligence source that has been proved reliable in other instances, one official said.

A second U.S. official said the report is being investigated, but said it could not be determined whether the group of Chechens actually entered the country, as the intelligence source reported.

"We don't know whether or not that report is true," this official said.

A spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection confirmed that the intelligence report was provided by another government agency, but said Border Patrol agents were unable to verify its accuracy.

The terrorist issue aside, many would agree that open borders lead to dilution of citizenship. This is not a new phenomenon; in 212 AD the emperor Caracalla diluted Roman citizenship (a decision I analyzed in the modern context). Are open borders and easy citizenship a good idea?

(We can't ask Caracalla!)

UPDATE: Via Glenn Reynolds's link to Mickey Kaus, I found another story no one wants to discuss: a direct relationship between poverty in the United States illegal immigration.

The Census statistics are both better and worse than advertised. They're better because the middle class isn't vanishing. Many middle-class families achieved large income gains in the 1990s and—despite the recession and halting recovery—have kept those gains. They're worse because the increase in poverty in recent decades stems mainly from immigration. Until our leaders acknowledge the connection between immigration and poverty, we'll be hamstrung in dealing with either.

After all, illegals by definition can't vote, can they?

(I think I should have said "may not vote".....)