,
21 tweets,
5 min read
Read on Twitter
An incredible reporting on the root cause of rural area Central America's exodus 👇
Although "climate refugees' sounds catchy and some twitterari immigration experts wannabes appear to embrace it as a way to churn retweets, there is no wiggle room in the US definition of the term of art 'refugee' to entitle them to asylum. None!
Under the INA, an act passed by Congress, a “refugee” is a person who is unable or unwilling to return to his or her home country bc of a “well-founded fear of persecution” due to race, membership in a particular social group, political opinion, religion, or national origin.
Membership in a particular social group (PSG) is the only of the 5 'on account' grounds that could be molded to specific and evolving changes. But since Matter of Acosta, both the BIA & circuit courts have been extremely hostile to a liberal and evolving view of PSG.
It is because tyrants in black robes are inherently suspicious about asylum seekers: worries of opening the 'flood gates' are just too huge ... and those worries just keep growing: the steady flow of European refugees died down w End of Cold War + some yrs, shifting asylum to POC
Let's face it! Anti-brown & black immig sentiments permeate asylum precedents & recent US immigration legisl history. From IIRIRA ('96) to REAL ID Act ('05) it is all about restricting immigration for POC. Trump just openly voices it, but in subtle terms it's all over asylum law
But back to the non-cognizable "climate refugees". Even if you somehow clear the PSG hurdle (and trust me! some awesome immigration lawyers will figure out how to do it), you would get hammered with the next elements you need to clear to be eligible for asylum.
First up with be establishing 'persecution'. Under US law persecution is defined as the infliction of suffering or harm, or a serious threat to life or freedom. Harassment & discrimination alone isn’t enough, so say settled court precedent.
Death threats, torture, imprisonment, beatings, detention, rape, are clear example of harm that has been held to meet the definition of 'persecution'. So is total economic deprivation. So yeah, maybe in @jacobsoboroff report some of the farmers could perhaps show such deprivation
But economic deprivation, by itself, is not and has never been considered a ground for granting refugee or asylee status. Nor is it enough if extortion or other crimes are committed against for economic, random, or personal reasons. T
The second hurdle is that you have to connect the "persecution" suffered or feared to one of the 5 "on account" grounds. To meet this nexus 'climate refugee" will have to show that the harm [losing house, farm, livelihood] is tied to a PSG. In fact that it is one 'central reason'
Sorry, but how exactly do you do that under current US law? Just 'farmers' or family members of farmers, or farm workers without more will not be a PSG even under Matter of Acosta. Honestly, no way no how! So you fail on nexus.
Let say my fellow immigration lawyers figure out how to clear the 'nexus', then you have to show that the persecution on account of protected ground was "inflicted" by the Government of the country you are fleeing or a group your Govt' is unwilling and unable to control.
Then Gov't action must be particularized & targeted. So unless 'climate refugee' can show its natl Govt by its actions inflicted the harm complained off on the particular 'climate refugee' the claim will necessarily fail. Bad Govt policy that affects everyone alike dooms a claim.
But flooding the media & social media with prolific use of #climaterefugee references has an unintended & devastating consequence on those asylum seekers stuck on So border or already in pipeline as it superimposes an alternative singular reason for the Central American exodus.
It will serve to undermine good claims based on complex & interrelated factor/ events w/ the easy brush aside that whatever the reason for harm the person is basing the claim that animus of the prosecutor was not ONE CENTRAL reason ... allowing the easy copout of 'climate" is.
So media and twitter influencers, please don't turn a catchy phrase into a everyday parlance. 'Refugee' is a term of art, so don't muddy it up because popularity does have consequences. Climate refugees are no more eligible for asylum, than fashion refugees.
The reasons for the Central American exodus & patterns of migration are complex & interrelated. Climate change is one such reason but by no mean the only one. Poverty & desperation are far more powerful pull factor. But neither necessarily fit neatly with the concept of asylum.
The millions of people affected and to be affected by #climatechange are a new form of 'Internally Displaced Persons' IDP where the displacement happens not by reason of war or strife but climate. Both the UN and domestic law MUST adjust and account for this new form of IDPs.
But any protection of climate affected IDPs cannot and should never be modeled on the 1951 Refugee Convention and the Protocol. These were born out of a foregone era of international law & cooperation.
What we are facing now is so fundamentally different that it requires a fresh look by young eyes. So move aside establishment & geriatric politicians and let young people take control of their own future. Addressing climate related displacement is a good place for them to start.
