In the Catholic church, justice is something carried out in two forms (“two feet”): One is charity on a personal level, and the other is social justice on a systemic level. In order to carry out this mission of protecting human dignity and caring for God’s creations, we, as a society, must learn to walk with both feet. This necessity, evidently, has come to the surface in the last few months regarding the United States’ aggressive immigration enforcement efforts.
One aspect that’s not often discussed in light of immigration, however, is displacement due to the climate crisis. According to the UN Refugee Agency, forced migration due to environmental degradation and loss of safe living conditions strains a region’s resources and exacerbates conflict. Moreover, the areas where climate change poses the largest threat are those where extreme poverty and political instability are already present, despite the fact that they are likely the smallest polluters globally.
One close-by example is Central America’s Dry Corridor spanning over parts of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Here, periods of prolonged drought with sudden heavy rains and increasingly frequent hurricanes have left entire communities devastated by a lack of food supply, flooding or both. Many individuals from these regions, especially Indigenous communities, have been forced to move north in search of refuge but are instead met with detention and deportation.
In the U.S., our Southern border (as well as sanctuary cities like Los Angeles and Chicago) is facing violent bombardments by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. On the horizon, the situation is worsening. In recent weeks, the Supreme Court has voted to give ICE officers the green light to stop anyone based on their race, language, occupation or location — a clear violation of human rights.
This is a social justice issue that must be understood in the context of the personal and the systemic. In our service “with and for others,” we must not only protect the human dignity of those undocumented but also attack the root of the issue that leads to displacement and conflict around the world: the climate crisis.
