Why migrants won't stop crossing the U.S. border

Welcome back to Beyond Today's headlines. I'm Brad LaPlante. Joining us this week is Yessenia Funes, an editor at large at Atmos. Her work can be found at Grist, Vogue, the Guardian, and more. She is a founding member of the uproot project. Yessenia joined today to discuss Donald Trp's climate policy, what he did in his first term, and what he's likely to do in a second term. We also talked about the intersection of climate policy and immigration policy. Here is Yessenia Funes.

What specific rollback stood out to you as most damaging in that first term?

YESSENIA FUNES: yeah I mean it's hard to know where to start   I was covering his administration closely back then I think one that really stands out to me that's sort of like indicative of just  his approach and his recklessness and his willingness to the law and,  regulations is the construction of the border wall. we know that that construction  was happening in really vulnerable areas, right? There were endangered species that were put at risk due to the construction of the border wall. The border wall was potentially creating flood zones where there hadn't been ones before and fuddling water into communities that  hadn't previously dealt with that. And so that one was a big one to me just because, , there wasn't any real benefit
to the border wall in terms of actually curbing migration. It was really a stunt and like a symbol of sorts all the reasons not to do it, all the reasons why the border wall was technically against, , a number of our environmental policies. President Trump at the time, , was really helping on pushing it through. And I think that just really shows how much of his policies are grounded in, , not what's actually going to address the issues that he campaigns on and rallies around, but really, what can he do to just make a show of things while sacrificing, , entire communities, species, ecosystems. And I know to this day there are still communities that are quite traumatized by the ways that that wall has separated their communities thinking aloud, like the hon Adam people who live on the border there, whose communities have historically spanned across borders and who now have to content with this infrastructure that's preventing them from accessing lands on both sides of the border in the ways that they used to be able to do as indigenous peoples of this country. But I mean, there's so many reason that were withdrawal of the Paris agreement on the destruction of the Wotus rule, the clean water rule, , that that helped protect our our waterways, thinking also of just the way he handled COVID and his unwillingness to prioritize black and brown communities, particularly in the South who face increased air pollution and exposure and were a lot more vulnerable and died at higher rates during the COVID-19 pandemic we saw air pollution rise under his administration.I mean, the list can go on and on and thinking about Hurricane Maria, right, and just like the failed disaster response. Like these are all environmental policies. These are all climate policies, and these are all so, beyond climate right, like the think the most important climate issues are the ones that we don't always think of as strictly climate change-related, but,sort of seep their ways into other parts of our lives, his his refusal to give adequate funding to like North Carolina after they had a devastating hurricane season under his administration as well. So, yeah, I mean, the Times had a big story about more than a hundred environmental policies that were repealed under his administration and I think it's hard to put into words with that actually meant and how much it worked, right? The incoming administration after him, the Biden administration had to like
repair and undo so much of that, but yeah, it's it's going to be a rough 40 years coming up as he starts to do this hole again, probably with a lot more precision and and strategy.
So it seems like the list does go on and on and on, right?

BRAD LAPLANTE: you just mentioned several climate policies that he rolled back and and how
it it really because I , people, do mention the Paris agreement. They mentioned that the at the top of the list, right? What do you think is are the most concerning climate policies going into a second term

FUNES: Looking at this all through the equity lens, , Justice Forty was a really, , ambitious initiative from the Biden administration to allocate 40% of of all federal investments and benefits in regards to environmental benefits to disadvantaged communities, largely communities of color. And many activists and policy experts took issue with Justiceardy in terms of it didn't do enough, , but also did more than any policy, any administration had done before it.
And so I'm really troubled at the likely prospect that the Trump administration will dismantle that. And in fact, dismantle the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden's landmark climate
law at large. And what that means for investments in clean energy, what that means for, different environmental groups who didn't have access to federal funds before who now do. I know there's a lot of concern from activists around the parts of the equationary Reduction Act that will remain, , because it was a very  corporate, friendly  blah. there's a lot of subsidies, a lot of tax benefits for companies that aren't exactly, here to save the planet really to to make a book, thinking of technologies like carbon capture,astration,  carbon capture storage,  direct air removal,  all these different technologies that are still improved that will
likely continue to benefit from the Inflation reduction Act where all those other pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act we'll get that on out. And so that's a bit concerned of mine is just what the legacy of that climate law will be and how many communities of color, low-income communities, , , vulnerable communities at large will be,exposed to more harm as a result of the dismantling of that, and you know, what truck decides to keep since again,  that that law was not
by any means like perfect and then it had many imperfections, whether that was like the continuing of oil and gas drilling on federal lands and in fact, the requirement that like any clean energy investments on federal lands you also have oil and gas investments on federal lands and it's it's a law it's really easy I think to manipulate to actually do a lot of harm if it's in the wrong hands. And now it will be. So I am really concerned about what that means for particularly communities like Cancer Alley, who already have such intense exposure to fossil fuel, emissions and industries who, , are just waiting for the day when they can get some relief from that who had yet to experience that. or local governments mitigate these.