ICE Raids Threaten Climate Justice

Image from Brianna Soukup - Portland Press Herald Staff Photographer

Students Who Should be in School are Terrified to Leave Their Homes.

Schools should be safe places for students to learn. With the threat of ICE in our communities, students are terrified of leaving their homes. We are currently seeing this in Minneapolis where, in response to a fatal shooting by an ICE agent, Minneapolis Public Schools has been forced to offer a remote learning option for a month for families who don’t feel safe sending their children to school. Preventing students from learning destroys the next generation of climate leaders before they can even discover their connection to the environment.

The Outdoors Become Surveillance Spaces.

Outdoor spaces are sanctuaries—places where people can rest, gather, and deepen their connection with nature. This connection is often what inspires and sustains climate activists. With the threat of ICE, these spaces become the opposite—sites of fear and danger. When people are afraid to leave their homes, they are cut off from the outdoors entirely. Opportunities to build relationships with nature become inaccessible to the communities most impacted by environmental racism.

A Diverse Climate Justice Movement is Prevented.

The environmental justice movement must center the voices of those most affected by environmental racism, such as immigrants and people of color. Due to fear of violence, these communities are unable to participate in environmental learning and organizing spaces. ICE raids not only harm individuals and families; they weaken the environmental justice movement by excluding the very people whose lived experiences are essential to building effective and equitable climate solutions.