Sen. Brian Schatz cares about climate change. He sees the impacts everywhere — even in immigration.

So even though it seems unlikely to go anywhere when senators are complaining on the floor that their amendments, which have something to do with immigration, are not being brought to a vote, Schatz has offered an amendment to give the Secretary of Homeland Security authority to let people already here stay if their home countries have become uninhabitable due to climate change.

In Schatz’s eyes, its similar to to letting people from Micronesia and other place come to the U.S. after we tested atomic weapons on their homeland.

This is part of what Schatz had to say on the Senate floor:

“It simply recognizes that climate change, like war, is one of the most significant contributors to homelessness in the world. And like with states torn apart and made uninhabitable by war, we have an obligation not to deport people back to a country made uninhabitable by sea level rise and other extreme environmental changes that render these states desolate. It does not grant any individual or group of individuals outside the United States with any new status or avenue for seeking asylum in the United States.”

—Kery Murakami