Lamar Smith Goes Moderate on Immigration

Many conservatives hope for quick and stringent anti-immigration legislation when Republican Rep. Lamar Smith takes over as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee next year. They may well be disappointed, Politico reports.

Despite talk that he would “pursue a scorched-earth immigration agenda,” as the news service puts it, Smith indicates the new House Republican majority will work immigration issues “through the prism of jobs, rather than red meat for the base,” Politico states.

He declines to discuss when his committee might deal with birthright citizenship, the policy of granting citizenship to every child born in the country, and whether he will try to cut total immigration, family migration or work visas.

“That is later on in this Congress; that is not our initial focus,” Smith said. “We don’t have any specific plans now in the early months to move on these issues. The focus is on creating jobs and protecting jobs.”