Look Who the EPA Is Funding Now

WSJ editorial.

"The Inflation Reduction Act is the political gift that keeps on giving—especially if you’re a lobby for progressive causes. We recently told you that the Environmental Protection Agency handed IRA money to an outfit backing anti-Israel protests. Turns out EPA is also funding groups that oppose immigration enforcement.

That’s the latest discovery by West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito’s office, which is probing IRA spending. The law appropriated $3 billion for Environmental and Climate Justice block grants. EPA is supposed to select “grantmakers” and “partner” organizations to spread around the largesse.

EPA tapped Fordham University as a grantmaker to distribute $50 million, in collaboration with the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice (NJAIJ). What does immigration have to do with climate? Nothing, though progressives say the issues “intersect” in the oppression of minority groups.

According to the EPA, Fordham and its partners will take “an intersectional approach to place frontline communities in positions of power” to advance climate justice “in disadvantaged and hard-to-reach communities and communities disproportionately impacted by climate change, pollution, and other environmental stressors.” What does that even mean?

Perhaps abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is what NYIC advocates. NYIC condemned ICE as “racist and abusive” at a “Member Congress” in January. The group this month rallied with Democrats in Albany for a bill to prohibit local law enforcement from working with ICE.

After President Biden’s election, the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice called for ending “all ICE transfers” and “all forms of incarceration in NY and NJ.” Does that count migrant criminals, including Venezuelan gang members, who prey on the innocent? NJAIJ boasts that its New Jersey policy victories include state cash assistance for undocumented immigrants and a ban on local government contract renewals with ICE.

As Mr. Biden talks tough on border security, his EPA is funding groups that are seeking to undermine immigration enforcement. It’s no surprise that IRA money is being misspent. But we can’t help wondering whether the Administration is trying to fund the resistance to a future Trump Administration."