BARBARIANS AT THE GATE—BUT THERE IS NO WALL AND THUS NO GATE

History does not repeat itself—but historic circumstances do.  

A 10,000 strong mob of poor people (mostly young men) from Honduras, Ecuador and Guatemala are marching through southern Mexico as I write this.  Their plan is to force their way across the US-Mexico border and enter the USA, where they will attempt to claim refugee status.  International law dictates these folks are or may be refugees at the Mexico crossing, but they lose that status once they cross the Mexico border.  In Mexico  THEY ARE NO LONGER FLEEING THE THREATENING CONDITIONS in their native lands which were (presumably) the incentives for their flight.  They are safe in Mexico, but do not want to settle there.  They want to cross into the USA.    They know well what will meet them at the US border—the Border Patrol will arrest them, then assign them a court date to reappear for a judicial hearing—THEN RELEASE THEM WITH A REQUEST TO REAPPEAR.  But they know the reality—that they can simply disappear and join the rest of the 20 million illegal immigrants already established in sanctuaries in this nation.  

Hordes of people attempting to move into more agreeable or economically favorable circumstances or fleeing one thing or another have been a part of world history since humans began migrating out of Africa  more than a million years ago. Most often the results are not positive for the country invaded. Strife, violence, disease transmission, economic disruptions and cultural collapse were often the results of these mass movements.  

History is rife with examples.  The feared “Sea Peoples” invaded Egypt during reign of the Pharaohs in the late Bronze Age (1200BC-800BC) and were repulsed only with great effort.  The mysterious Dorians are often attributed to be  the 1100 BC invaders of south-eastern Europe that caused the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization—Europe’s first major civilization. That invasion ushered in the Dark Ages of Greek civilization.  

The Roman Republic and the Empire were invaded by Germanic and Gallic tribes repeatedly.  In the early Republic and Empire they were repulsed and defeated, but in the latter periods, a Roman population weakened by economic and cultural decline often succumbed to the invaders who were permitted to settle in Roman lands but were never acculturated.   In  376 AD Emperor Valens of the Eastern Roman Empire was one of the first to be soundly defeated by barbarian invaders.  The  Goths were a Germanic tribe living east of the Danube River in present day 
Bulgaria].  The Goths first begged to be given land on the west side of the the Danube in Thrace, claiming  that they were fleeing from a barbarian horde— the Huns.  But Valens refused them.  The Goths, angered at the reply, armed themselves and forced their way across the Danube River entering  Roman territory near Adrianople in what is now western (European) Turkey.  The invading Gothic hordes were too much for the weak, poorly led and vacillating leadership of the Roman forces (which had been quickly constituted from  other recently settled immigrants).  The Roman lines  collapsed in front of the Goths.  The invaders swarmed in and settled where they wanted.  They continued to be a thorn in the side of the Romans.  That first Gothic incursion was seen as evidence of Roman weakness and was soon followed by other invasions  of barbarians in rapid succession.  The invasions were a significant element in the circumstances which  eventually led to the fall of the Roman Empire and the ultimate collapse of western culture. These events ushered in the Dark Ages. 

Most recently, streams of Syrians, Lybians and others  fleeing the Bush-Obama-Clinton wars in the ME surged across the  Mediterranean. In a force a million strong.  These migrants passed through southern Europe—their  goal being wealthy, “progressive” Sweden, Denmark and Germany. There, like the Goths,  they were settled and permitted to stay— thanks to the idealistic  and progressive policies of leaders like German  PM Angela Merkel.   She and the German people as well as Europe as a whole  are suffering with economic =, cultural and social problems associated with those decisions  today.  

Get the picture?