Our "friends" to the south.

Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico, was the site of the February 10 Olympic qualifying match between the American and Mexican under-23 soccer teams. A New York Times account of the match, which ended in a 4-0 rout of the U.S., describes the stadium as "a throbbing hive" of anti-American hostility.

"The shouted vulgarities began as the United States under-23 team appeared for warm-ups," reported the Times. "The name of each starter was heckled with collective booing. The national anthem was derided with shrieking whistles." One Mexican soccer fan, referring to the crowd's fervor, offered a somewhat plausible explanation: "Soccer is our national sport. We cannot let the Americans beat us at our game."

But Mexican patriotism can hardly explain the spectacle that ensued during the 26th minute of the match, when the 60,000-strong Mexican crowd began the unison chant of "Osama! Osama!" After the match, several spectators tried to dismiss the chant as a tasteless joke. At least one tried to frame the incident as a crude geopolitical commentary: "We think the United States exaggerated its reaction about terrorism and security measures. We criticize the reasons why America goes to war."

Those points are debatable, of course, but the U.S. under-23 soccer team is hardly responsible for American foreign policy. Furthermore, the "Osama" chant had been heard from Mexican fans at an earlier U.S.-Canada soccer match in Zapopan--making it difficult to dismiss as merely an example of tasteless excess by home-field fans.

Writing on VDARE.com, Alan Wall, an American citizen who lives and works in Mexico, points out that "in recent years ... crude anti-Americanism by Mexican fans in soccer matches with the U.S. is becoming a tradition. It was present in 2002, when the U.S. team beat Mexico in a World Cup qualification match, and back in 1998 there was an infamous outburst of anti-American heekling at a game in Los Angeles--much of it perpetrated by Mexicans resident in the U.S."

There's certainly nothing scandalous about the passionate attachment Mexicans have to their soccer team, and they're entitled to their opinions about our nation and its foreign policy. But the eagerness with which Mexican soccer fans can embrace--however facetiously--Osama bin Laden is a compelling illustration of the suicidal folly of the Bush administration's drive to demolish our border with Mexico, and is creating a pool of resentful, unassimilated Mexicans in our midst.