several environmental organisations in the us are expressing different opinions over how to deal with the effect of increased population on the environment. Particularly, they have not reached a consensus over the issue of immigration. Some of the environmentalists feel that the population pressure imposed by immigrants contribute to environmental degradation and the growing consumption of natural resources in the country.

However, the issue has resulted in a split between one of the oldest, and more influential, environmental groups in the nation's capital The Sierra Club. The organisation's 600,000 members will be asked this month whether the group's official policy should change from one which talks about neutrality on immigration to one which advocates a reduction in net migration.

On the other hand, some environmentalists, and immigrant and refugee advocates have branded the anti-immigrant agenda as racist, by saying that immigration would not have any affect on the quality of air, water, food and living conditions.

Immigration to the us increased in 1990, when the Immigration Reform Act opened the door to families of immigrants settled in the country. Legal immigration increased by 40 per cent and reached nearly one million new arrivals every year.