Debate Over Water in Southwest Ignores Immigration

Intake towers for water to enter to generate electricity and provide hydroelectric power stand during low water levels due the western drought on July 19, 2021 at the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River at the Nevada and Arizona state border. The Lake Mead reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam on the Nevada–Arizona border provides water to the Southwest, including nearby Las Vegas as well as Arizona and California, but has remained below full capacity since 1983 due to increased water demand and drought, conditions that are expected to continue. (Photo by Patrick T. FALLON / AFP) Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

News Analysis

The Biden administration’s move to revisit a 2019 Bureau of Reclamation biological opinion that had relaxed restrictions on water access in California has drawn the ire of state and national Republicans, who have issued a statement claiming that “California Democrats and the Biden administration now want to deprive [Californians] of water supplies.”