WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration has fully or partly restricted entry to the U.S. from 39 countries, including 22 nations ranked in the most vulnerable quarter of nations to climate impacts, according to an analysis of data from the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative. Danielle Wood, an associate professor, said, "Nearly all of the most vulnerable countries are on a ban or visa pause."
Immigrants from Chad, Niger, Sudan, Somalia, and Sierra Leone are fully barred from entering the U.S. The administration also sought to terminate the temporary protected status for individuals from Honduras and 12 other countries residing in the U.S. Nearly half of the countries targeted for this revocation are ranked as highly climate-vulnerable by Notre Dame. The U.S. Supreme Court is considering an appeal regarding the temporary protected status revocation for individuals from Syria and Haiti.
Honduras, which has experienced increased rainstorms, droughts, floods, and coastal erosion in recent years, is ranked among the half of countries most vulnerable to climate impacts. Hurricane Mitch struck Honduras in 1998 and resulted in 7,000 fatalities. Evelyn, a resident of New York, said, "There were bodies and dead animals floating in the water, the house was messed up, the furniture was all gone – doors, windows gone. It was so, so sad." She added, "I got sick because of the mosquitoes too. My uncle and aunt were just like: ‘OK, just bring the kids over here, don’t stay. It’s dangerous.’"
Evelyn said, "Every day it’s more barriers." She said, "It’s sad to know that people will not be able to apply for a status or something to help their situation and also help the people back home." Jocelyn Perry, a program manager at Refugees International, said, "People are being displaced by climate change, the number is growing every year and, increasingly, the displacements are permanent." Perry said, "Climate change is not necessarily the first issue that displaced people raise. But if, say, a family’s crops fail for three years and they have to move to an urban area and they can’t find work or it’s dangerous there, climate change has played a key role in their movement – even if their asylum claim is because of the violence that follows."
The Trump administration has limited refugee admissions, primarily to white South Africans. The administration also dismantled overseas aid programs aimed at mitigating the effects of global warming. Donald Trump has described the climate crisis as a hoax and used profanity to characterize it. The U.S. is the largest historical emitter of greenhouse gas pollution globally.