Our only chance is to make common cause with folks most impacted-across borders and those pushed to migrate–to take on the transnational corporation who are the real illegal immigrants (they cross borders and violate our communities and environment in the US and abroad.) Not making common cause with immigrant communities allows big business to divide and conquer us. Climate change is going to create hundreds of millions of climate refugees that need to be our allies. We also have much to learn from the better organized movements in the global south and the more sustainable practices where many migrants come from.

It’s also important to be aware that pro-big business right wing white supremacists are consciously trying to split the environmental movement over immigration issues. Says Tarso Ramos, executive director of Political Research Associates, a Massachusetts organization that has long monitored the American radical right, “John Tanton and the anti-immigration network he built have been greenwashing their racist agenda for far too long. These folks haven’t done a thing to reduce American consumption rates, constrain extractive industries or hold polluters accountable. Yet they’re working overtime to convince actual environmentalists to do their dirty work — blaming immigrants for environmental degradation.”
http://www.alternet.org/story/147655/

I think we are most effective if we make common cause with immigrant communities and the movements around the world to stop the causes of forced migration– anti-environmental corporate “free” trade policies and climate change and other ecological crisis.

I’ve made it pretty clear just about every time I open my mouth that we need to take power away from big business. I don’t think that goal is incompatible with treating immigrants as humans.