Saturday, January 8, 2011

Another New Member

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, assigned the job of chairman of the subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement to Elton Gallegly. According to New York Times' Politics and Government Blog, Gallegly is a Californian conservative Republican. Apparently, Representative Steve King was supposed to be appointed chairman, but instead was given the job of vice chairman instead.
King is "known for his high-profile support for measures to crack down on illegal immigration," and sure enough, the unexpected switch has left King disappointed. He voiced his concern over the fact that a manifesto that Republicans created does not have any "immigration agenda in it, period."
However, it seems that Gallegly and King actually do not have many considerable differences in regards to how they view immigration. Gallegly is a proponent of strict border enforcement and disagrees with giving illegal immigrants legal status. Also, Gallegly refers to himself as "one of the 'top 10 illegal immigration hawks in Congress,'", so that clearly says something about his opinions regarding the issue.
On the other hand, King had considered illegal immigration a "hallmark issue" and made sure that he publicly brought up his negative thoughts regarding the fact that immigrants add to crime rates and are accounted for job losses.
I guess we'll just have to see how Gallegly chooses to handle the illegal immigration issue, as well as see if King might attempt to move up to chairman.

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