GREENWASHING BORDERS.

• Author: Harrigan, Fiona
• Position: IMMIGRATION

FOR YEARS, IMMIGRATION restrictionists have borrowed arguments from the environmentalist fringe to make their case against allowing immigration to developed nations. Using a concept that British researchers Joe Turner and Dan Bailey call "ecobordering," proponents of low immigration say Western countries must impose intake restrictions because immigrants from poorer countries pollute and degrade natural spaces.

While that argument is not new, it does seem to be evolving. In April 2021, for example, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich sued the Biden administration over immigration policies he claimed violated the National Environmental Policy Act(NEPA)ofl969.

NEPA requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of infrastructure construction, land management actions, and other projects. Brnovich's suit argued that the administration had failed to "even [engage] in the pretense of performing any environmental analysis before taking environmentally transformative actions"--namely, halting border wall construction and former President Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico" program, which forced asylum seekers to wait across the border until their immigration court dates. Migrants' actions, Brnovich claimed, "directly result in the release of pollutants, carbon dioxide, and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere."

American anti-immigration groupsincluding the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies, and Progressives for Immigration Reform--have published articles and reports blaming immigrants for environmental decay. FAIR claims immigration-related overpopulation has led to overdevelopment, threatening "our farmland and forests to benefit special interests."

These claims do not hold up to scrutiny. On average, immigrants seem to have a smaller carbon footprint than native-born Americans. They tend to "use less energy, drive less, and produce less waste," according to a 2020 study by Michigan State sociologist Guizhen Ma, who notes that areas with larger foreignborn populations tend to have better air quality. A 2010 Center for American Progress report found that "the 10 highest carbon-emitting cities have an average immigrant population below 5 percent," while the 10 lowest carbon-emitting cities "have an average immigrant population of 26 percent."

Nor do immigrants foster "overdevelopment." As of 2018, more than 90 percent of America's immigrants lived in urban areas. America's 896...