Attempts by opponents of immigrants’ rights to weaken support for comprehensive immigration reform have long tried to shove an array of wedge issues into the movement in attempts to split it.

One that’s getting some particular play this year is the “immigration is bad for the environment” myth.

Following on the heels of a report released in March by the ironic anti-immigrant front group, Progressives for Immigration Reform, former presidential candidate and conservative American Values chairman Gary Bauer (everybody remember this?) had an op-ed in Politico yesterday once again laying out the tired canard about immigration being the cause of U.S. environmental degradation (for the real answer, see: BP). Bauer writes:

According to liberal wisdom, population growth is the primary cause of heavier traffic, urban sprawl, further depletion of natural resources and increased CO2 emissions. And immigration is the principal cause of U.S. population growth today.

Using the environment as a screen for nativist policy recommendations may be creative, but its not grounded in real facts on the ground.

The argument rests on the idea that immigrants in their home countries consume fewer natural resources than they do when they move to the United States. So increased immigration to the U.S. causes increased use of resources and therefore causes the U.S. to lead the world in energy consumption.

Unfortunately, proponents of this argument aren’t looking at the truth:

• The main problem with U.S. environmental damage is not the number of people here; its how we live. According to the World Resources Institute, the U.S. is home to 23 percent fewer people than the European nations in the E.U.-15, but we still produce 70 percent more greenhouse gases. We’re four and a half percent of the world’s population but emit 20 percent of global emissions! See: cars, power plants, agribusiness…not immigrants.
• Recent immigrants to the U.S. are more likely to engage in “green” lifestyle choices like using public transportation than U.S.-born citizens are!
• Conservation and energy efficiency are national, if not global, imperatives. Blaming immigrants to the U.S. for our environmental problems is what we could call an honesty FAIL.

There may be reasonable policy reasons for people to differ on comprehensive immigration reform, but stoking trumped up environmental fears should not be one of them.