Climate Change and Cross-Border Displacement: What the Courts, the Administration, and Congress Can Do to Improve Options for the United States

Abstract

This paper examines seven existing and potential legal and policy options for improving the United States’ response to people fleeing across international borders in the context of the adverse effects of climate change and disasters. These opportunities are maximizing the potential of the refugee definition in the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, adopting the expanded refugee definition in the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees, accepting non-refoulement obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, expanding climate change considerations in the Refugee Admissions Program, making greater use of nationality-specific humanitarian parole programs, leveraging Safe Mobility Offices to lead regional solutions, and reimagining Temporary Protected Status.

It argues that a more realistic and less constricted conception of both international protection and the national interest of the United States will not only provide life-saving refuge to those in need while resuscitating the asylum system but will also serve as a model to other countries in the Americas and beyond.

Keywords: Climate, displacement, refugee, asylum, Cartagena, complementary protection, cross-border, resettlement, parole, Safe Mobility, Temporary Protected States