Climate Migration and Hurricane Beryl
From Africa to Canada, where it is now a “post-tropical cyclone”, there is no barrier, wall high enough, or restrictive immigration laws that could have contained the destruction and death that hurricane Beryl left in its path.
This is only the beginning of hurricane season where extreme weather conditions driven by climate change are increasingly the cause of climate migration. When people are displaced and forced to migrate because of climate change disasters they are often faced with further danger, barriers, walls, and no legal framework of protection. In the US the refugee/asylum definition does not include climate based persecution.
The United States must simultaneously address climate change, and create climate change frameworks and policies that support the right to migrate, and protect people who are forcibly displaced due to severe weather conditions.
$20 Billion for Southern Border Wall
The Texas-Mexico border is about 1,200 miles long. Texas officials insist on spending valuable taxpayer money on building a wall along the southern border. The cost and time has been estimated “assuming officials somehow persuade all private landowners along the way to turn their property over to the state — construction would take around 30 years and upwards of $20 billion to finish.”
Texas has no end in sight for how much money and resources it is willing to spend on building a border wall that ultimately does not address the root causes of migration. The wall will not protect us from climate change related weather conditions and it will not stop people fleeing their homes in search of safety and refuge.
Religious Freedom in Texas Wins
Last week was a win for faith groups in Texas that provide humanitarian aid to newcomers seeking safety and refuge. A District Judge in El Paso denied Attorney General Paxton’s legal attempt to shutdown Annunciation House, the oldest catholic serving organization in El Paso. The Judge’s ruling stated the state’s suit: “violates the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act by substantially burdening Annunciation House’s free exercise of religion and failing to use the ‘least restrictive means’ of securing compliance with the law.”
Despite this ruling, Team Brownsville and Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley have also received letters of inquiry like those sent to Annunciation House from the Attorney General’s office. Clearly, the attacks and fishing expeditions on faith based humanitarian aid groups in border communities continues.