If You Care About Climate Change, You Should Care about Anti-Immigrant Policy
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court upheld Trump’s cruel travel ban on several mostly-Muslim countries. In a 5-4 vote, SCOTUS conservatives essentially endorsed Trump’s racist “immigration control.” This decision will have implications for years to come, suggesting that anti-immigrant and xenophobic policy can be justified. In a scathing dissent opinion, Justice Sotomayor said the decision was no better than Korematsu v. United States, the 1944 decision that endorsed the detention of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
This decision comes on the heels of weeks of chaos at the U.S.-Mexico border as Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol enacted Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ “zero tolerance” policy, which gave ICE the unprecedented authority to detain all people crossing the border, criminally prosecute all adults, and separate parents from their children
Last week, Trump signed an executive order to end family separation which he described as “compassion”, but this isn’t what you think. Children will still be jailed – only this time, with their families. And just yesterday, news came out that the US would temporarily “scale back” its zero tolerance policy – not because of the human rights implications, but because there’s not enough space in detention centers.
We at 350.org are outraged by these horrendous violations of basic human rights and stand in solidarity with all immigrants and refugees seeking safety and better lives.
We believe that it is critical that the climate movement step up for immigrant and refugee communities, and here are three reasons why:
1. Migration is a climate change issue.
