System Change Not Climate Change has signed on to an Immigration Justice pledge being circulated by the Democratic Socialists of America Climate and Environmental Justice Working Group.  The pledge calls for mobilization around the abolition of ICE and opposition to criminalization and imprisonment of immigrants and refugees. 

The complete text of the pledge is as follows:

Climate Justice is Immigration Justice

Pledge to Mobilize

All over the world, the lines are being drawn between the ruling elite and exploited masses amid a rapidly worsening climate crisis. Borders are among the sharpest of those lines. While the carbon emitted here travels freely across the U.S. border, climate refugees are deported, shut out, shot, or left to die in the increasingly arid desert. The United States bears disproportionate responsibility for the wars and fossil-fueled warming that drive global migration. We destabilize other sovereign nations in order to exploit their land, labor, and resources, then demonize the people who flee those nations in search of politically, economically, and ecologically safer ground. The U.S. has turned its back on these people and has chosen a path of border militarization, fascism and violence. What does this mean for the millions of climate refugees predicted to be displaced by 2050? In the words of Naomi Klein, the U.S. is choosing to “let them drown.”

As climate and environmental activists, we see our work as rooted in a deep commitment to justice for both people and planet. We fight back against fascistic practices, tyrannical leaders, and all oppressive structures created by capitalism on behalf of the planet we all call home. Climate and environmental crises are not separate from social justice- they are shaping the conditions under which other systemic oppressions will only intensify.

Therefore we pledge to mobilize for the abolition of ICE and to oppose policies criminalizing and imprisoning immigrants and refugees. Unwavering solidarity with all refugees and migrants is inseparable from our efforts toward a just future where we care for the Earth and for each other. None of us are free until all of us are free.

Another world is possible.

The DSA Climate and Environmental Justice Working Group is seeking additional organizational endorsements.  An online sign-up form can be found here.