Perhaps we should adorn the border fence with signs reading: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Because when the talk is of immigration from Mexico -- both legal and illegal -- one of the arguments (OK, the main) in favor of cracking down on the flow north is that Mexicans dilute American culture. That they don't assimilate. That they speak Spanish, play soccer, eat weird food and otherwise engage in non-American behavior.

Every culture has the right to perpetuate itself, the oft-condemned American culture included. Nobody loves listening to jazz and bluegrass more than your loyal correspondent, nor eating a hot dog at a baseball game. (And can we please get back to the pre-9/11 tradition of singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" during the seventh-innning stretch?)

But it says here that American culture is in no danger of being overwhelmed. Heck, as much as McDonald's and Coca-Cola terrify the French (who fear losing their own culture in the tidal wave of Hollywood values), the thought is a bit laughable.

Besides, once immigrants from other nations arrive here, they immediately begin to assimilate.

I give you Example A, the recent beatings of two homeless men along the flood-control channel in Escondido -- with one of the victims reporting his assailants were a group of young Latino men.

What makes this news (as well as relevant) is that typically when we have the homeless being assaulted, the perpetrators are young Anglo males. (And that may well yet turn out to be the case, as no one has been arrested, much less convicted.)

Still, if the victim was right about his assailants, it's only further proof that Latinos are adopting American culture -- even the facets we might prefer they not, like beating homeless men with baseball bats (once the sole province of spoiled, rich white kids).

And a few years ago when we saw the huge Mexican-pride rallies throughout the region, how were they organized?

On cell phones and through MySpace. Those kids are thoroughly Americanized.

Even the much-ballyooed street gangs that immigration foes tout as a Mexican curse are in reality an American invention, created on the streets of New York by the children of 19th century Irish and German immigrants -- and later updated by blacks and Latinos in Los Angeles (and now being exported back to Mexico and Central America).

What's funny about the fears of America losing its culture to the immigrants is that Mexico fears losing its culture to us. A few years ago, one of the TV networks ran a report of how Mexican high schools near the U.S. border were increasingly fielding American football teams due to demand from their students. The NFL is staging games in Mexico for a reason.

Mom and apple pie are in no danger of being swept aside. And if some aspects of Mexican culture enter the American mainstream -- and, really, aren't tacos and salsa already there? -- that only enriches the American experience.

Kind of like that hot dog, adapted from the sausages German immigrants brought with them.

Contact staff writer Jim Trageser at jtrageser@nctimes.com or (760) 740-5408.