(Mike Norris, Co-Editor, The American Dossier)
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee examined efforts to combat climate change.
During the hearing, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) (“AOC”) argued for her “Green New Deal,” claiming that Congress would have “blood on our hands” if the legislation is not passed. The bombastic claim is hardly surprising, following previous statements. But, is there any proof to her assertion?
Since winning her election, AOC has aggressively used social media to advocate for climate change legislation. On February 7, she released her “Green New Deal,” which calls for the elimination of the U.S.’s carbon footprint in ten years. AOC’s ambitious plan proposes providing “economic security for all who are unable or unwilling to work” and calls for “a full transition off fossil fuels and zero greenhouse gases.” One estimate predicted that the proposal could cost up to $93 trillion over the first decade.
Not everyone on Capitol Hill has embraced her plan.
In February, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) named eight Democrats to a new climate change committee. Despite three of those Democratic members being freshmen, AOC was not among them.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) brought the “Green New Deal” up for a vote. The resolution failed, with 57 Senators voting against it and 43 Senators voting “present.”
With criticism piling on, AOC took to social media to defend her “Green New Deal,” tweeting: "The GOP, corp lobbyists, & Fox expose their dishonesty every time they claim the #GND 'bans cows,' steals people’s farms, takes your grandma’s lunch money &costs $100 zillion. Maybe if they actually did their job & read HRes109, they could avoid embarrassing themselves so often."
After Tuesday’s committee hearing, AOC issued another round of tweets, this time claiming that climate change was the cause for the migration crisis at America’s Southern border.
Sharing a video by “The Leap”, AOC tweeted: “The far-right loves to drum up fear & resistance to immigrants. But have you ever noticed they never talk about what's causing people to flee their homes in the first place? Perhaps that's bc they'd be forced to confront 1 major factor fueling global migration: Climate change.”
There is no question that climate events cause migration. In 2017 alone, six Atlantic hurricanes, wildfires in the West, mudslides and record-breaking temperatures caused $306 billion in damage, killing over 300 people. After Hurricane Maria, 300,000 Puerto Ricans fled to Florida, and disaster experts estimate that climate and weather events displaced more than 1 million Americans from their homes last year.
Historically, however, Central Americans have tended to migrate for economic reasons. Most of this region’s nations have no significant resources and little industry. Outside of illegal drugs, the most valuable Central American export product is coffee, which is easily affected by global market fluctuations.
While poverty remains the principal cause of Central American families traveling north, desperation to escape gang violence also motivates many. In 1996, the Clinton administration approved the “Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act,” which led to the deportations of tens of thousands of convicted criminals to Central America. These deportations led to an explosion of U.S. prison gangs, like MS-13 and the 18th Street gang, across El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
This reality, combined with weak judicial and security institutions, created the gang problem fueling Central America’s mass emigration. Hundreds of thousands of Central American families are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They know the risks of an illegal trip across the U.S. border, but are forced to leave to save their lives. When asked if U.S. immigration policies deter them, they usually reply that the prospect of being caught by U.S. migration officials makes them anxious, but that “there is no scarier place” than their home countries.
Like many before them, Central Americans flee their homes for America in search of security, improved quality of life and work. In spite of monetary costs and legal implications record numbers of illegal immigrants are being detained at our nation’s borders.
Last month, Homeland Security officials U.S. encountered more than 103,000 illegal immigrants crossing the country's southwest border, the most since 2007. The climate during those two years? March of 2007 was one of the warmest months on record, above mean (48.1oF) compared to March 2019 40.68°F), which ranked in the middle third of the 125-year period of record.
To paraphrase James Carville, if you want to fix our immigration problem from Central America, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
After serving as an Airborne Infantryman in the 82nd Airborne Division, Mike attended Florida State University, where he received his Bachelors Degree in Political Science and George Washington University, where he received his Masters in Political Management.
Since 2004, Mike has worked in the Florida Senate, where he was one of only two Chief’s of Staff under 30 and in the Michigan Senate, where he served as the Legislative Aide to the Assistant Minority Floor Leader. The 2018 election cycle was Mike’s eighth as a Political Consultant.
Mike previously served as the Secretary and Vice President of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, Regional Vice Chair for the Florida Federated Young Republicans and attended the 2012 Republican National Convention as an Alternate Delegate. He currently lives in Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, with his rescue Pit Bull, Ike.
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