Rep. Velázquez, Senator Markey Reintroduce Bill to Protect Migrants Displaced by Climate Change
Washington, DC –Today, Rep. Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY) and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) reintroduced the bicameral Climate Displaced Person’s Act, which aims to address the growing effect of climate change on human migration.
“In order to fight climate change, we must all be in this together,” said Congresswoman Velázquez. “However, we must not only find solutions around climate equity and climate justice but recognize the need for security assistance and resettlement opportunities for climate-displaced persons. I’m proud to introduce this comprehensive legislation to protect the human rights of climate-displaced persons and establish a national strategy to address climate displacement.”
“We are already seeing the impacts of the climate crisis—from stronger storms to deadlier wildfires to longer droughts,” said Senator Markey. “The Climate Displaced Persons Act creates new protections and pathways for people that bear the brunt of climate change’s catastrophic impacts while doing the least to cause the crisis. We must help people both stay in their homes, as well as provide people who have lost their homes, communities or neighborhoods from climate-fueled disasters—with support and a second chance at life.”
Climate-displaced persons often lack any formal protection under U.S. or international law. While the effects of climate change can aggravate societal tensions that lead to persecution, many climate-displaced persons do not meet the definition of refugee, and they cannot access resettlement opportunities in the United States.
The bill directs the Secretary of State, in coordination with the USAID Administrator and the Special President Envoy for Climate, to devise a Global Climate Resilience Strategy. With respect to those needing durable resettlement solutions, the bill creates a new humanitarian program for those who have been displaced by environmental disasters or climate change. This program will function separately from the U.S. refugee admissions program but will afford the same benefits.
This bill is cosponsored by Representatives: Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Jim McGovern (D-MA), and Adriano Espaillat (D-NY).
A copy of the legislation can be found here.
The CDPA is endorsed by National Partnership for New Americans; U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants; Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN); Refugees International; Human Rights First; CASA; CCAN Action Fund; Taproot Earth; Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service; Jesuit Refugee Service/USA; Church World Service; Somos Un Pueblo Unido; Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services Inc. ; The Advocates for Human Rights; National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR); Haitian Bridge Alliance; CHIRLA - Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights; Center for Gender & Refugee Studies; Earth Ethics, Inc.; Center for Biological Diversity; Climate Action Rhode Island-350; Climate Critical; Arkansas United; ECDC; Rainbow Railroad; Environmental Grantmakers Association; Stand.earth; National Employment Law Project; Wind of the Spirit Immigrant Resource Center; Texas Impact/Texas Interfaith Power & Light; Earthworks; New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light; The People’s Justice Council; Friends of the Earth US; Justice Is Global; HIAS; Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Lutheran Advocacy Ministry - New Mexico; New Mexico Conference of Churches; Turtle Island Restoration Network; Don’t Waste Arizona; Alianza Americas; Minnesota Interfaith Power & Light; Citizens Caring for the Future; 198 methods; Vote Climate; 350 Conejo / San Fernando Valley; Newark Water Coalition; Unite North Metro Denver; Climate Refugees; Unite North Metro Denver; ActionAid USA; 350Hawaii; Common Ground Rising; Animals Are Sentient Beings Inc.; Presente.org; Terra Advocati; Friends Committee on National Legislation; Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition; Asian Americans Advancing Justice | Chicago; Occupy Bergen County; GreenLatinos; International Institute of New England; International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP); North Carolina Interfaith Power & Light; North Carolina Council of Churches ; MoveOn.org Hoboken; Rise Up WV; First Congregational United Church of Christ; Communities United for Status & Protection (CUSP); Greenpeace USA; American Jewish World Service; Endangered Species Coalition; Justice in Motion; International Rescue Committee; Zero Hour; Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants; Michigan Immigrant Rights Center; Foreign Policy for America; DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving; Oxfam America; Sunrise Movement; League of Conservation Voters; Women’s Refugee Commission; Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition; New York Immigration Coalition; Climate Action California; Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC); Promise Arizona; Empowering Pacific Islander Communities ; Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition ; Louisiana Organization for Refugees and Immigrants (LORI); ecoAmerica; Alight ; 350PDX; and 350.org.
“The Climate Displaced Persons Act is a critical piece of legislation to protect the rights, dignity, and safety of those forced to leave their homes due to the accelerating climate crisis, while bolstering our nation’s commitment to global climate resilience,” said NicoleMelaku, Executive Director of the National Partnership for New Americans. “People are already on the move due to climate change and it is time that U.S. policy reflect this reality and offer those displaced a pathway to migrate safely and with dignity.”
“While the vast majority of people forced to leave their homes due to climate-related disasters are displaced internally, those who are forced to flee their countries face a stunning dearth of safe migration options,” said Eleanor Acer, Senior Director of Refugee Protection at Human Rights First. “The Climate Displaced Persons Act is a crucial first step in recognizing that the United States has a duty to take action to create migration pathways for people pushed to leave their countries by the adverse impacts of climate change. By creating such pathways, the United States can lead by example, encourage other countries to take similar steps and provide a crucial lifeline to vulnerable and marginalized people placed at risk by climate disasters.”
“Today, almost every displacement crisis Refugees International covers globally has a significant climate aspect, from hurricanes in Guatemala and devastating cyclones in Mozambique to record flooding in Bangladesh and Pakistan. Severe droughts followed by El Niño flooding are drastically affecting livelihoods and health in Sudan, South Sudan, and Somalia. The Climate Displaced Persons Act represents a forward-looking approach through which the United States could become a global leader in shaping durable, effective, and people-first solutions to the climate crisis at the moment when it is needed most. The CDPA recognizes that protection and pathways for climate-displaced people who have crossed borders are needed alongside resources to prepare and adapt to the effects of climate change where people are. Refugees International is proud to support this much-needed legislation.” – Refugees International’s President Jeremy Konyndyk
“Climate change is disproportionately impacting the most vulnerable, marginalized and oppressed people on the planet, including forcibly displacing millions from their homes. Knowing its outsized global emissions and historic responsibilities, the US has failed to provide adequate climate adaptation support to help people stay, while also failing to adequately protect those at its own borders. As an organization that has heard first hand from affected populations, we feel Senator Markey’s leadership on the Climate Displaced Persons Act is vital - a crucial and welcome opportunity for the US to demonstrate its commitment to regional and international partners on both climate change action and the protection of displaced persons at a time when such cooperation is urgently needed.”-- Amali Tower,Founder and Executive Director of ClimateRefugees
Our work towards a safe climate and future for all is rooted in justice, which means it must center the lives, safety, and wellbeing of people most impacted by climate change. As climate-related disasters intensify, we know that more and more people, particularly in the Global South, will be displaced as their homes are rendered uninhabitable. The U.S. disproportionately causes and exacerbates climate change, yet, as the CDPA states, ‘our domestic [and] international migration policies do not reflect the realities of climate-related displacement.’ 350.org calls on the U.S. to enact the CDPA and welcome the ‘shared responsibility of climate change adaptation, global disaster risk reduction, & resiliency building.’” - Jeff Ordower, North America Director, 350.org.
“Even though the United States has contributed the most to the climate crisis, it is countries in the Global South that bear the brunt of climate change. The Climate Displaced PersonsAct recognizes the US’s role in making other nations and communities more vulnerable to climate impacts, and our responsibility to support those communities to adapt in place or through migration. As we head into the global climate talks at COP28, we applaud the reintroduction of the CDPA and urge Congress and the White House to take meaningful action to support and welcome climate-displaced people.” Tefere Gebre, Chief Program Officer, Greenpeace USA.
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