Opinion: Immigrant advocacy and climate action are intertwined

PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • January 12, 2026

Our children grieve as their friends are being disappeared by violent, masked thugs. Our communities are terrorized. Our neighbors live in fear that they or their parents will be next. Through my work, I talk every day with spiritual leaders seeking faithful responses to the climate crisis, and I find that they are also persistent supporters of immigrants’ rights. Migrants only sometimes cite climate concerns as a primary reason for their emigration, but in a time of accelerating global climate devastation a climate-related cause is almost always a part of the root cause for displacement. Those who have contributed the least to human-caused climate change almost always experience the worst impacts and bear the biggest burden. ~ Rev. Dr. Allen Ewing-Merrill, The BTS Center, Portland