Thread: Study: Immigrants to blame for pollution

Study: Immigrants to blame for pollution

Posted: Sep 3, 2008 01:20 PM EDT

By ABC-7 Reporter Martin Bartlett

EL PASO -- A Washington, DC-based group says you can add pollution and possibly even global warming to the list of things for which immigrants might be to blame.

In a new study, the Center for Immigration Studies said when people move from rural locations around the world to urban centers in the US, they produce disproportionate levels of carbon dioxide.

"My first reaction is that it's completely unfounded and that it's utterly ridiculous," said Isela Avila, a poster-child for bad behavior if you buy into the study's findings.

"My mom was born in Mexico and they came from farming the land, tilling the land kind of thing," she said, but now Avila is grabbing a bite at a fast-food restaurant before jumping back in her car and joining the fossil-fueled mad-dash back to the office.

"Immigration is not inevitable -- it's not the weather," said study co-author Dr. Stephen Camorata. "We have a choice of how many people we let in."

The study which found that immigrants -- legal or not -- average four times as much carbon consumption in the US as in their home country.

"But you also have to remember the contributions that immigrants make even when they migrate to another place," said El Paso immigrant advocate Iliana Holguin.

Holguin is the executive director and managing attorney for Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services -- an arm of the Catholic Church in El Paso which helps people navigate the legal maze of immigration. She says the growth greenhouse gases may have more to do with a worldwide migration from country to city -- not necessarily across borders.

"We see that happening all the time, everyday and it's not just a phenomenon of the immigrant community," she said. "It's easy to blame the immigrant community because a lot of times it doesn't stick up for itself."

Read the Center for Immigration Studies report: http://www.cis.org/GreenhouseGasEmissions

"We see that happening all the time, everyday and it's not just a phenomenon of the immigrant community," she said. "It's easy to blame the immigrant community because a lot of times it doesn't stick up for itself."

She did not just say that, did she?!?!