‘Every day it’s more barriers’: how the US is shutting out climate refugees

Evelyn was a teenager when Hurricane Mitch hit Honduras in 1998. ‘Every day it’s more barriers,’ she said. She now lives in New York and has two daughters. Photograph: Thalia Juarez/The Guardian

Millions of people around the world are having their lives upended by floods, storms and heatwaves worsened by the climate crisis. Those forced to flee their home countries, however, are finding that the door to the US is more firmly shut than ever.

Neither US nor international law recognizes environmental hazards, such as climate-related displacement, as a valid cause to claim asylum or gain entry through other migration pathways, despite the mounting toll of disasters caused by an overheating planet.