In the 1960s the issue of the environmental impact of population growth gained national and Sierra Club recognition. The Sierra Club focused initially on access to, and education about, family planning to achieve population stabilization. Some Sierra Club volunteer leaders pushed a position that to protect the United States and global environment it was important to limit the total number of Americans including US immigration numbers. From 1989 - 1996, the Sierra Club had a national policy to greatly limit immigration. That policy was changed in 1996 by national votes of the board and membership to be neutral on immigration. In response to the vote, an anti-immigration slate of candidates ran for the Board of Directors in 1998 and placed the issue before a vote of the membership; again Sierra Club membership voted it down. In 2004, anti-immigration advocates again tried to elect an anti-immigration slate to the Board of Directors. Sierra Club volunteer leaders organized a campaign (Groundswell Sierra) and defeated the anti-immigrant candidates.
The public position of neutrality on immigration changed in 2013 when the Board of Directors voted to endorse a path to citizenship. Support for DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), DAPA (Deferred Action for Parents of Americans), and the Dream Act followed. Recently the Sierra Club actively opposed Trump Administration initiatives such as the southern border wall, inhumane detention, and mass deportation.