Ever since the topic of the border
crisis has come
up during the Biden administration,
one infuriating thing is that, very
few people have brought up the fact
that foreign policy is tied to what
we're experiencing at the border.
Well, representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez finally
put out a video explaining exactly
what I've been wanting
members of Congress to talk about.
Let's take a look.
>> So let's talk about this,
because so much of our national
conversation, which is not
a conversation about immigration,
is driven by people who could not
care less about immigrants.
Often people want to say,
why are you talking about
the border crisis?Or why are you
talking about it in this way?
Well, we're talking about it.They
just don't like how we're
talking about it,
because it's not a border crisis.
It's an imperialism crisis,
it's a climate crisis,
it's a trade crisis.
And also, it's a carceral crisis,
because, as I have already said,
even during this term, and
this president,
our immigration system is based and
designed on our carceral system.
>> She's exactly right about that.
And look, if she were one of these
lawmakers who says the right
things, but then consistently votes
in favor of the National
Defense Authorization Act, which is
the military funding legislation,
then I wouldn't give her brownie
points.But she has voted against
it, and she has a pretty clear
understanding of what caused the
migrant situation at the border.
And, I have evidence for
that, I want to elaborate on
that further, but before I do,
Ferren, I wanted to bring you in.
Because I was under the impression
based on some loudmouths on Twitter
that AOC is actually not our
friend, that she actually
doesn't know what she's doing.
>> No, fraud squad totally right.
I mean, it's ridiculous,
these people who do this crap, but
no, it's funny because I was
actually in
a conversation earlier this week.
And I brought up the climate
change issue on immigration,
because somebody asked you,
what's driving all, I said well,
climate change is the big ignored
problem, especially in Central and
South America.
We have a lot of communities,
a lot of countries,
that are already poor.
And then when you take
an issue like climate change,
which is a threat multiplier,
you bring in the droughts,
you destroy the crops, you leave
people destitute and desperate.
And before you know it,
you have a crisis.
Whether it's in that country,
whether it's an immigration crisis,
and this is literally, think
back to an inconvenient truth.
This is literally,
like the one of the main theses of
that documentary of what happens
when we have millions and millions
of people displaced every year,
because of climate change.
We've been warned, we knew this
would happen.Just through climate
change alone, then you throw in
the US imperialism in these areas,
and you have a US made crisis.
And now we're acting.Oh no,
we don't know what's it.
No, we did this, and now we're
sitting here saying, well come on
up, we're going to throw you in
a cage with a tin foil blanket.
>> Yeah, you're exactly right.
And I think you just helped me
crystallize in my mind, exactly
what it is that frustrates me,
the conversations or at least
the dominant talking point.
The beginning of the conversation
is usually,
why is this happening to us,
right?As if the United States
government and the American people
have been victimized by an influx
of migrants at the border.
No, like there needs to be personal
responsibility.
And look, maybe personal
responsibility goes a little far,
because this is the US government
which has had a long history of
being the top polluter in
the world.
Certainly when it comes to CO2
emissions, we've certainly gone
into other countries to overthrow
democratically elected leaders,
thus destabilizing those countries,
leading to a lot of violence in
those countries.
So let's start off with some
specific details with climate
change.
For instance, the largest share of
global greenhouse gases emitted
since the Industrial Revolution
comes from the United States
in 2018, the United States emitted
15.53 metric tons of carbon dioxide
per capita.
Just to compare us to China,
China emitted 6.59 metric tons.
So we are the top polluters still
till this day.We're number one.
Global warming manifested itself in
very destructive hurricanes over
the past several years, but
also in a long term drought
situation over wide swaths of,
would you look at that, Guatemala,
Honduras and El Salvador.
A drought which has ruined crops
for several seasons in a row, and
given the rural population little
choice, but to uproot themselves
and hit the migrant trail.
The global warming is also
the result of current capitalist
mode of production.
So, you know businesses
don't want to cut back on CO2.
Donald Trump certainly empowered
them to loosen up their polluting
activities.
And so we're obviously seeing
a flow of migrants as a result of
direct result of the actions that
we've taken, both for businesses
and for U.S imperialist reasons.
And speaking of imperialism real
quick, the US intervened in
Guatemala in 1954.
And that was the coup that I've
been talking about this week,
where they overthrew the moderately
left of center government of
president Arbenz who had been seen
as soft communism, and
a threat to the profits of
the United Fruit Company with
connections within the Eisenhower
administration, the United States
connived in the overthrow of
the moderately progressive
government of Honduras in 2009.
And so unsurprisingly,
we're seeing a flow of immigrants
from these specific countries.
So it's now happening to us.
The chickens have come home
to roost.
These are the consequences of US
foreign policy.
These are the consequences of
policies that impact corporations
and how much they can pollute
the world, not just this country.
And so we need to be real about
that, because there are no band
aids.There really are no band aids.
This is going to continue to be
a problem, unless we actually look
forward to long term solutions.