Immigration Restriction is Enviromentalism?

I read the local paper today, which I haven't done in a while. With The Triviune one doesn't miss much, but today they did something that irritated me. Several actually (NSA Listens In: A4?!), but in their Voices section they ran three pieces under Perspectives on Immigration. One would think they would publish three divergent views, but no. Not only do we get three identical views, but it's quite clear from the first that all three were members of same meeting with our local Assemblyperson to lobby on this issue (and that he's doing a swell job, too). The editor thought we needed to be triple-teamed on this issue.

The editorials assert that controling immigration is an environmentalist position. They claim that getting population growth under control is essential to solving our environmental problems. How do they jump from population growth to immigration?

More than 90 percent of California's population growth is caused by immigration and births to recent immigrants -- a million new people every two years.

Unfortunately such racist overtones are present in parts the environmental movement. The Sierra Club has recently been involved in a fractious fight over whether to take a stand on immigration policy. It's a shame that not all environmentalists are progressive in other areas as well.