[Paleopsych] NYT: Sierra Club Revisits Issue of Immigration

[Premise Checker]

Sierra Club Revisits Issue of Immigration
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/13/politics/13sierra.html
April 13, 2005

    By [1]FELICITY BARRINGER

    WASHINGTON, April 12 - A year after a bitter election for the board
    of the Sierra Club that focused on candidates' stands on immigration,
    the issue is now before the membership, this time as a ballot
    initiative.

    Most people involved with the voting say the new campaign, which ends
    on April 25, is far more low-key.

    Neither side said it expected a victory for the proposal, which would
    commit the club to support "lower limits on migration to the United
    States to address our nation's rapid population growth and its harmful
    effects on the domestic and global environment."

    Five new directors are also being elected to three-year terms on the
    15-member board. Some candidates oppose the established leadership and
    support immigration restrictions. But unlike the opposition slate last
    year, which included former Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado, none of the
    dissidents have national profiles.

    Last year, the debate was tainted with allusions to racism and
    character assassination, and although a taste of that vitriol was
    evident in interviews with the chief combatants, the comments and the
    contest this year have a pro-forma feel.

    The two most visible camps are Groundswell Sierra, which opposes any
    stand on immigration limits, and a group once called Sierrans United
    for Population Stability, now known as Susps, which argues for them.

    "We are fighting what we consider to be a hostile takeover," said J.
    Robert Cox, a former club president and a professor of communication
    studies at the University of North Carolina, who founded Groundswell
    Sierra and echoes his group's old rallying cry against the
    anti-immigration insurgents. Professor Cox supports the current board
    majority.

    Susps once again supports several candidates, though they are widely
    considered unlikely to break into the current board lineup, which
    includes a large majority in favor of the direction followed by the
    club's executive director, Carl Pope.

    Dick Schneider, an environmental policy consultant in Oakland, Calif.,
    and a Susps member, said Tuesday that the issue was being revisited,
    in part to fulfill an agreement by the two groups in 2003 to defer the
    ballot question on immigration until a nonpresidential election year.

References

    1. http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=FELICITY%20BARRINGER&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=FELICITY%20BARRINGER&inline=nyt-per