Immigrant communities suffer disproportionately from environmental degradation and poisoning, whether from exposure to pesticides in fields, toxic dumps in neighborhoods, or solvents in factories. But immigrants have begun to fight back and are among the leaders of the environmental justice movement. Efforts like those of the mostly Latino residents of Kettleman City, who won their 6 year battle against ChemWaste's planned hazardous waste incinerator, are forcing corporations to prevent pollution, rather than dumping it onto those least able to resist. Today, immigrant farmworkers and environmentalists are joining together to oppose rolling back the phase-out date of the deadly pesticide methyl bromide . Immigrant farmworkers have been leading the battle against pesticides more than 20 years.
Environmentalists also have much to learn from immigrant cultures and practices.
Newcomers to this country often come from places where they had more sustainable lifestyles and a closer connection to the land. The Loatian family that grows its own vegetables without pesticides in a small backyard plot is as much a model of environmentalism as the family that recycles its newspapers. Rising population, fueled by immigration, is the cause of our water quality and scarcity problems. The cleanliness of the water we drink has been improving since the Act was passed, proving that neither population nor immigration are responsible for water quality problems. Further, while water quality and supply are valid concerns in much of the American Southwest, including California, immigrants are not the problem.