OPINION:
“Climate migrants” are defined as those individuals in the world who’ve suffered some sort of weather-related disaster and are, therefore, in the eyes of the left, in the minds of radicals like Sen. Bernie Sanders, are worthy of automatic entry into the United States.
Well, there’s a large pool of people for ya.
Leave it to the left to use environmentalism as a tool to pry wide U.S. borders.
“Immigration is not a threat to national security,” Sanders put forth, in his recently released immigration plan, “A Welcoming and Safe America for All.” Say what?
“[N]o human being is illegal,” the Vermont senator went on. Say what?
And from there — this logic: So let’s let in everybody who’s facing a weather-related disaster.
It’s environmentalism at its most radical.
“As president, Bernie will … create a new program to welcome migrants displaced by climate change, and set a floor of accepting at least 50,000 climate migrants in his first year in office,” his plan states.
Forest fires in Indonesia? Come to the United States. Mudslides in Sierra Leone? Come on in. Droughts in Ethiopia? Just look at the possibilities.
“Drought in Africa leaves 45 million in need across 14 countries,” The New Humanitarian reported in June.
“Area burned in 2019 forest fires in Indonesia exceeds 2018 — official,” Reuters reported in October.
“Global toll from landslides is heaviest in developing countries,” The Conversation reported in 2018. America’s blessed, so America must help. “Globally,” that piece went on to state, “the highest numbers of fatalities from landslides occur in the mountains of Asia and Central and South America, as well as on steep islands in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.”
And this just in, from CNN: “The climate crisis will profoundly affect the health of every child alive today, report says.”
Can’t you just hear the calls for open borders, all in the name of the children?
But it’s one thing for Americans to dig deep in their own pockets and, with compassion, in sympathy, offer up donations to help those of the world most in need — particularly during times of disaster, such as floods, and famine, and war and other such ravages. And donate we do; Candid.org reported “30% of U.S. Households Made Disaster-related Donations in 2017 and 2018” and “Disaster Giving Report Shows Foundations and Public Charities Funded Nearly $504 Million in 2017.”
It’s another thing entirely for pinheads in government to make the case that America’s taxpayers are obligated to help anyone, anywhere, in need and to redistribute dollars based on political designs.
One is free market; the other, socialism.
But the idea that Americans ought to open borders to those affected by environmental issues adds an entirely new stratosphere to the socialist madness.
“To welcome those who are forced from their homes by climate change,” as Sanders put it, is simply a design of the left to utterly shutter America’s borders.
That’s because climate change can be faulted for about anything these days. Don’t believe that?
“We see climate change everywhere,” wrote the Environmental Defense Fund.
And politicians like Sanders see “climate migrants” everywhere.
But fleeing temperature is not a reason to resettle in America. If that’s the way our border control is going to go, then America might as well not even have borders in the first place. And bam. That, right there, is where the left is hoping this leads.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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