A call to merge the climate and immigration movements

Hurricane Katrina is widely remembered as the most expensive hurricane in U.S. history. But it was also the country’s largest-ever climate migration.

More than 1.5 million people were forced from their homes after Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast, leaving 80 percent of New Orleans underwater and demolishing Mississippi’s coastline—and at least 40 percent were not able to return home.

Widely and controversially called “Katrina refugees” by the media, these displaced Americans faced widespread ostracism and discrimination as they attempted to enter new communities, similar to what international migrants face today.

As Katrina’s 20th anniversary approaches on August 29, Colette Pichon Battle—a generational native of southern Louisiana and co-founder of the climate justice group Taproot Earth—wants people to be reminded of the inseparable connection between climate justice and migrant rights.

”Millions of people will be, and already are, migrating because of climate impacts,” she said in a May speech reflecting on Katrina’s upcoming anniversary. “It’s not just hurricanes, it’s wildfires, it’s drought. It’s happening, it’s here, it’s time for us to work together.”

As the Trump administration decimates programs to allow people fleeing from disasters of all kinds to safely cross America’s borders, Pichon Battle argues that it’s essential for climate activists to join the fight against those policies.

Pichon Battle’s work today is “to make sure that Black folks and poor folks and Native folks are part of this climate movement.” But to do that in this political climate, she argues in an interview with HEATED, the entire climate movement needs to embrace a broader, borderless vision.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Emily Atkin: What would you say to people who believe that climate activism and immigration activism should be kept separate?

Colette Pichon Battle: I understand why people think that. We've been told that all of these things exist in silos.

But this is all connected by an economy rooted in extraction. Climate is not a topic, it’s a context. The rights of immigrants to move out of harm's way is connected to extreme weather, and extreme weather is connected to an economy fueled by the continued extraction of fossil fuels.

We've got to understand that fighting for one group or issue is not gonna win this. If you're on a particular issue, it's time for us to network and really figure out a strategy to move ...