This conference was sponsored by Tom Wong and the U.S. Immigration Policy Center. The recordings and supporting materials for all conference sessions are available at the above link. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Lora Adams at lora@masadc.com.

Senator Edward J. Markey and Representative Nydia M. Velázquez led seventeen Congress members to support this letter urging the Administration to respond to climate-displaced persons.

This report examines the fiscal impact of refugee resettlement on states and local communities and indicates that refugees have no statistically significant impact on expenditures or revenues of the localities and states in which they are settled over the short and long-term. The brief includes a case study of two communities in Virginia to highlight the positive cultural and economic contributions of refugees and need for additional federal and private support for resettlement.

This document goes into further detail of the methodology and underlying data of the report Does Refugee Resettlement Impact State and Local Finances? The Fiscal Effects of the Refugee Resettlement Program.

75 legal experts and scholars, including attorneys and professors, signed onto this letter to request that the administration use the powers that Congress has already delegated to it to offer aid and protection to those fleeing the effects of climate change worldwide. The letter includes a list of recommendations to address climate displaced persons that fall under current executive authority.

83 state, local, and national organizations signed onto this letter to the administration and Congress to request coordinated action to address the plight of climate displaced persons. The letter includes specific mechanisms already under existing authority for the Biden administration.

This report details how Americans believe that displacement by climate change makes a prospective migrant as deserving of humanitarian immigration relief as those migrants fleeing persecution—the criterion for asylum or refugee status. Given that little to no such form of relief currently exists for climate-displaced persons under U.S. refugee and asylum laws, the report identifies a gap between public preferences and existing law.

This document goes into further detail of the methodology and underlying data of the report Public Preferences for Admitting Migrants Displaced by Climate Change.

This report from U.S. Immigration Policy Center (USIPC) at UC San Diego addresses “climate displaced persons,” who have traditionally been absent in U.S. immigration policy. The report provides a thorough background on climate displacement and concrete actionable recommendations for the administration and Congress.