The Boston Globe - 19.08.2019

A2 The Boston Globe MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 2019

The Nation

CHICAGO — Doctors and
public health experts warn of
poor health and rising costs
they say will come from
sweeping Trump administra-
tion changes that would deny
green cards to many immi-
grants who use Medicaid, as
well as food stamps and other
forms of public assistance.
Some advocates say they’re al-
ready seeing the fallout even
before the complex 837-page
rule takes effect in October.
President Trump’s adminis-
tration trumpeted its aggres-
sive approach this past week
as a way to keep only self-suffi-
cient immigrants in the coun-
try, but health experts argue it
could force potentially mil-
lions of low-income migrants
to choose between needed ser-
vices and their bid to stay le-
gally in the United States.
‘‘People are going to be sick-
er. They’re not going to go get
health care, or not until they
have to go to an emergency
room,’’ said Lisa David, presi-
dent and CEO of Public Health
Solutions, New York’s largest

public health organization.

‘‘It’s going to cost the system a

lot of money.’’

Two California counties

and attorneys general in 13

states sued, saying the changes

will increase public health

risks.

There are signs that is al-

ready happening in cities in-

cluding Chicago, Detroit, and

New York, immigrant advo-

cates say.

Within hours of the an-

nouncement, a Minnesota im-

migration attorney said she re-

ceived a flurry of calls from

worried clients about whether

to leave Medicaid. A Detroit

nonprofit helping Latinos and

immigrants with social servic-

es said its usually jam-packed

lobby was empty the day after

the rules were unveiled. New

York’s largest public health or-

ganization, Public Health So-

lutions, which serves a large

immigrant population, report-

ed a 20 percent drop in food

stamps enrollment since the

rule was proposed in the fall.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Doctorssayadministration’snew

rulewillmeansickerimmigrants

PHOENIX — The nation’s
largest provider of shelters for
immigrant children is looking
to reopen two facilities that the
state of Arizona forced it to
shutter last year because of is-
sues with employee back-
ground checks and allegations
of abuse.
Southwest Key filed applica-
tions to reopen a downtown
Phoenix facility that can house
420 children and one in the
outer suburbs that can house
139.

The suburban facility, in

Youngtown, closed last year

amid reports that staff shoved

and dragged unruly children.

Videos released to reporters

showed staffers dragging chil-

dren on the ground and shov-

ing a boy against a door.

Authorities investigated the

allegations but decided not to

pursue charges, saying there

was ‘‘no reasonable likelihood

of proving’’ the workers com-

mitted a crime.

Southwest Key says it’s

ready to reopen the closed fa-

cilities.

Spokesman Neil Nowlin

said in a statement that South-

west Key has resolved the is-

sues that led to the closing of

the shelters and that there is a

continuing need for beds to

house immigrant children.

Immigration authorities say

they’re dealing with a large in-

crease in the number of unac-

companied children who come

to the United States via Mexico.

The Border Patrol appre-

hended more than 69,000 un-

accompanied children between

October and the end of July, ac-

cording to its data. That’s com-

pared to just over 50,000 in all

of the 2018 fiscal year.

Southwest Key filed the new

applications to reopen in June

and July. An Arizona Depart-

ment of Health and Human

Services spokesman said the

department hasn’t yet complet-

ed a review, and he couldn’t say

how long it would take.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

TwoshutteredArizonasheltersforimmigrantchildrencouldsoonreopen

SACRAMENTO — The city
of Sacramento has filed an un-
usual lawsuit to ban seven men
considered to be a ‘‘public nui-
sance’’ from a popular business
corridor.
The lawsuit alleges the men
are ‘‘drug users, trespassers,
thieves... and violent crimi-
nals’’ who have illegal weapons
and ammunition and have
forced police to dedicate an
‘‘excessive amount’’ of resourc-
es to the Broadway corridor.

City Attorney Susana Alcala

Wood filed the suit Aug. 9 in

Sacramento Superior Court,

according to a copy posted on-

line by The Sacramento Bee.

The suit includes declara-

tions from local business and

property owners, who claim

they have been threatened.

Alcala Wood said in a state-

ment Sunday such lawsuits are

not appropriate in every situa-

tion, but this case warrants le-

gal action. She said this type of

lawsuit will only be filed with

the neighborhood’s support.

‘‘The City of Sacramento

will seek injunctive relief when

criminal activity in an area has

become excessive when com-

pared to similar neighbor-

hoods, and other enforcement

remedies have not proven suc-

cessful,’’ she said. ‘

Some of the men are be-

lieved to be homeless and ef-

forts to reach them Sunday

were unsuccessful.

The lawsuit seeks an in-

junction that would bar the

men from being in the desig-

nated area ‘‘at any time.’’ The

city argues that unless the men

are banned from the area,

their activity will continue to

‘‘cause great and irreparable

injury to the residents and

businesses,’’ who have ‘‘suf-

fered emotional distress in the

form of fear, intimidation and

anxiety.’’

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Sacramentofileslawsuittoban7menfromloiteringinbusinessdistrict

Parts of a Colorado wildlife

refuge remain closed off on

Sunday after officials first dis-

covered plague-infected prai-

rie dogs there in late July.

Wildlife and nature areas near

Denver have been shut down

as officials continue efforts to

stem the spread of the disease.

Rocky Mountain Arsenal

National Wildlife Refuge, a

15,000-acre nature area north-

east of Denver, was able to par-

tially reopen on Sunday. The

refuge is home many species,

including bison and bald ea-

gles, and where the plague

concerns first developed in the

black-tailed prairie dog.

Plague-infected fleas were

biting the prairie dogs, and of-

ficials began closing affected

areas ‘‘as a precautionary mea-

sure to prioritize visitor health

and safety, while also allowing

staff to protect wildlife health,’’

according to a statement from

the US Fish and Wildlife Ser-

vice.

Certain areas remain closed

because of the risk posed by

hiking through them and tak-

ing pets.

Though the plague can now

be treated with antibiotics, it

has a dark history, and accord-

ing to the CDC, was responsi-

ble for the death of 60 percent

of Europe’s population during

the Black Death. In 1900, rat-

infested ships sailing from ar-

eas with plague problems led

to epidemics in US port cities,

but the last epidemic was in

Los Angeles in the 1920s.

Health officials in Colorado

have been coating prairie dog

holes with an insecticide pow-

der.

WASHINGTON POST

Colo.facesplague-infestedprairiedogs

Reporting corrections

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Daily Briefing

By Joel Achenbach
WASHINGTON POST
WASHINGTON — Before
the slaughter of dozens of peo-
ple in Christchurch, New Zea-
land, and El Paso this year, the
alleged gunmen took pains to
explain their fury, including
their hatred of immigrants. The
statements that authorities be-
lieve the men posted online
share another obsession: over-
population and environmental
degradation.
The Christchurch suspect,
who is charged with targeting
Muslims and killing 51 people
in March, declared himself an
‘‘eco-fascist’’ and railed about
immigrants’ birthrates. The
statement linked to the El Paso
shooter, who is charged with
killing 22 people at a Walmart
earlier this month, bemoans
water pollution, plastic waste,
and an American consumer cul-
ture that is ‘‘creating a massive
burden for future generations.’’
The two mass shootings ap-
pear to be extreme examples of
ecofascism — what Hampshire
College professor emeritus Bet-
sy Hartmann calls ‘‘the green-
ing of hate.’’
Manywhitesupremacists
have latched onto environmen-
tal themes, drawing connec-
tions between the protection of
nature and racial exclusion.
These ideas have shown them-
selves to be particularly danger-

ous when adopted by unstable

individuals prone to violence

and convinced they must take

drastic action to stave off catas-

trophe. The alleged El Paso

shooter’s document is shot

through with existential de-

spair: ‘‘My whole life I have

been preparing for a future that

currently doesn’t exist.’’

In recent years, the main-

stream environmental move-

ment has moved in the direc-

tion of social justice — the op-

posite of what hate groups seek.

Now the leaders of those orga-

nizations fear white national-

ists are using green messages to

lure young people to embrace

racist and nativist agendas.

‘‘Hate is always looking for

an opportunity to grab hold of

something,’’ said Mustafa Santi-

ago Ali, a vice president of the

National Wildlife Federation.

‘‘That’s why they use this eco-

logical language that’s been

around for a while, and they try

to reframe it.’’

Michelle Chan, vice presi-

dent at Friends of the Earth,

said, ‘‘The key thing to under-

stand here is that ecofascism is

more an expression of white su-

premacy than it is an expres-

sion of environmentalism.’’

This is all happening in a

rhetorically and ideologically

overheated era. Environmental

activists want to create a sense

of urgency about climate

change, the loss of biodiversity

and other insults to the natural

world,buttheydon’twanttheir

messages to drive people into

deranged ideologies.

There is a danger of ‘‘apoca-

lypticism,’’ said Jon Christens-

en, an adjunct assistant profes-

sor at the University of Califor-

nia Los Angeles. It’s important,

he said, to provide reasons to be

hopeful: ‘‘There’s definitely a

danger of people taking dire

measures when they feel there’s

no way out of it.’’

Hartmann, who has tracked

ecofascism for more than two

decades, echoes that warning,

saying environmentalists ‘‘need

to steer away from this apoca-

lyptic discourse because it too

easily plays into the hands of

apocalyptic white nationalism.’’

The leaders of several major

environmental organizations

said white supremacy is anti-

thetical to their movement.

‘‘What we saw in the El Paso

manifesto is a myopic, hateful,

deadly ideology that has no

place in the environmental

movement,’’ said Michael

Brune, executive director of the

Sierra Club. Echoing that was

Andrew Rosenberg, director of

the Center for Science and De-

mocracy at the Union of Con-

cerned Scientists: ‘‘We need to

speak out so that our members

know that under no circum-

stances are we buying into this

kind of philosophy.’’

The alleged gunmen in El

Paso and Christchurch did not

emerge from the green move-

ment. The documents attribut-

ed to them are primarily fo-

cused on race, cultural identity,

immigration, and the fear of a

‘‘great replacement’’ of whites

by people of other races. The

‘‘eco’’ part of the equation is ar-

guably an add-on.

But these accused men did

not come up with hateful ideol-

ogies in a vacuum. They have

tapped into ideas about nature

that are in broad circulation

among white nationalists.

Meanwhile, leaders of main-

stream environmental groups

are quick to acknowledge their

movement has an imperfect

history when it comes to race,

immigration, and inclusive-

ness. Some early conservation-

ists embraced the eugenics

movement, which saw ‘‘social

Darwinism’’ as a way of improv-

ing the human race by limiting

the birthrates of people consid-

ered inferior.

The alleged Christchurch

shooter began his online screed

by writing, ‘‘It’s the birthrates.

It’s the birthrates. It’s the birth-

rates,’’ and then warned of the

‘‘invasion’’ by immigrants who

will ‘‘replace the White people

who have failed to reproduce.’’

The document believed

posted by the alleged El Paso

shooter cites birthrates among

the ‘‘invaders’’ trying to enter

the United States and asserts,

‘‘If we can get rid of enough

people, then our way of life can

become more sustainable.’’

John Holdren, a Harvard

professor who was President

Obama’s science adviser, said

the environmental movement

grappled decades ago with the

perceived racist undertones of

the emphasis on population

growth. ‘‘A lot of people felt they

were getting burned by talking

about population growth and

its adverse impact,’’ Holdren

said. As a result, he said, the

movement’s leaders began fo-

cusing on the education and

empowerment of women,

which has led to falling birth-

rates around the world as wom-

en take control of their repro-

ductive lives.

2massmurders,acommontheme:‘ecofascism’

The ‘greening of

hate’ seen as a

pernicious force

PAUL RATJE /AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Abel Valenzuela of El Paso meditated in front of the makeshift memorial for shooting

victims at the Cielo Vista Mall Walmart in El Paso on Aug 8.

AMR ALFIKY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Jasmine Saavedra, a pediatrician at Esperanza Health Centers in Chicago, which runs four clinics that serve low-income

and largely immigrant populations, carried Alondra Marquez, a newborn baby, in her clinic.