Newly anointed House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) shocked much of the immigration community on Friday, January 7, when he quietly announced that he had bypassed the Congressman that most advocates had assumed would become chairman of the Committee's immigration subcommittee during the 112th Congress.  Instead of appointing the immigration restrictionist firebrand Representative Steve King (R-IA) to the position, he selected longtime Representative Elton Gallegly (R-CA) to head the newly renamed House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement.

Representative King served as the Ranking Minority Member on what then was the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security, and International Law during the 110th and 111th Congress (2007-2010).  He gained a reputation during those years of not only being a strong opponent of illegal immigration, but also of being somewhat of an unguided missile on the subject of immigration.  Indeed, King's remarks had infuriated many pro-immigration advocates, including a number of Latino Repubilcans, many of whom had warned the Republican party that making King the face of the GOP on immigration could endanger the Republican party's ability to attract Latino voters for generations.

In appointing Gallegly to the chairmanship of the immigration subcommittee instead of King, Smith has selected a Member of Congress whose record on immigration is very similar to King's but who does not have a history of making remarks that become "bulletin board material" for pro-immigrant advocates.

Representative Elton Gallegly was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1986 and has been reelected every two years since, usually by comfortable margins.  He represents Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties in the House, including Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley.  His district has undergone a bit of a political transformation in recent years.  It supported President George W. Bush over Vice President Al Gore by heavy margins in both 2000 and 2004.  However, it supported President Barack Obama over Senator John McCain in 2008 by a margin of 50.5 - 47.7.

Representative Gallegly has long been both a nemesis to the pro-immigrant advocacy community and a champion of the immigration restrictionist advocacy community.  As the 111th Congress drew to a close, he had voted overwhelmingly against the positions of the pro-immigrant and pro-refugee advocacy communities, supporting their positions in just 2.7 percent of the key, contested immigration- and refugee-related House floor votes that he had cast during his career.  Indeed, as of the end of the 111th Congress, he had only supported the positions of the pro-immigrant community twice out of 74 key, contested immigration- or refugee-related floor votes.

As strong as his voting record is in favor of the positions of the immigration restrictionist advocacy community, Representative Gallegly is best known for an amendment that he authored in the mid-1990s that would have denied undocumented alien children the right to attend pubilc elementary and secondary schools.  The amendment, which was offered to the bill that eventually was enacted into law as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IRRIRA), would have given states the option to deny public education to illegal aliens.  The House agreed to the amendment on March 20, 1996, by a vote of 257-163.  However, the amendment was dropped in the ensuing conference between the House and the Senate.

More recently, Gallegly has been active in either sponsoring or cosponsoring legislation that is favored by the immigration restrictionist community.  Indeed, during the 111th Congress, alone, Gallegly added his name to at least two dozen such measures.  They included H.R. 123, the Credit Agencies Identity Theft Responsibilities Act of 2009; H.R. 124, the Secure the Capitol Act; H.R. 125, a measure that sought to eliminate the exceptions to the prohibition on adjustment of status of aliens who are unlawfully present in the United States or who accept unauthorized employment; H.R. 126, a measure that sought to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to limit citizenship at birth, merely by virtue of birth in the United States, to persons with citizen or legal resident mothers; H.R. 127, a measure that sought to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to change certain requirements relating to a sponsor's affidavit of support for an alien; H.R. 128, the Respect for the Law Act of 2009; H.R. 132, the Total Overhaul of Totalization Agreements Law of 2009; H.R. 133, the Identity Theft Notification Act of 2009; H.R. 137, the Employment Eligibility Verification and Anti-Identity Theft Act; H.R. 138, a measure that sought to require Federal contractors to participate in the basic pilot program (E-Verify System) for employment eligibility verification; H.R. 139, the Identification Integrity Act of 2009; H.R. 140, a measure that sought to withhold certain highway funds if a State does not comply with certain requirements in issuing a driver's license or identification card; H.R. 141, a measure that sought to require those applying for, and renewing, SCHIP, TAA, and ATAA benefits to present documentation proving both citizenship and identity in order to receive those benefits; H.R. 142, the Enforce Immigration Law Act of 2009; H. RES. 498, a measure to honor and congratulate the U.S. Border Patrol on its 85th anniversary; H.R. 19, a measure that sought to require employers to conduct employment eligibility verification; H.R. 98, the Illegal Immigration Enforcement and Social Security Protection Act of 2009; H.R. 764, the American Elections Act of 2009; H.R. 994, the Loophole Elimination and Verification Enforcement Act; H.R. 997, the English Language Unity Act of 2009; H.R. 1228, a measure that sought to provide that Executive Order 13166 shall have no force or effect, and to prohibit the use of funds for certain purposes; H.R. 1229, the National Language Act of 2009; H.R. 1588, the Common Sense English Act; and H.R. 2305, the SAFE for America Act.

Gallegly has been a leader on immigration since his early days in the Congress.  He chaired  the Congressional Task Force on Immigration Reform in 1995, which produced a 200-plus page report that contained more than 80 specific recommendations.  Many of those recommendations became law a year later when Congress enacted IIRIRA.

Representative Gallegly recently has said that "[t]he answer to illegal immigration is fairly simple.  First, we must enforce our laws.  Second, we must remove the magnets that persuade illegal immigrants to risk their lives to come to the United States.  Finally, we must remove the benefits that make it easy for them to stay."  Gallegly also recently has said that the United States must "stop providing benefits to illegal immigrants and stop waving the carrot of amnesty."

Among the immigration enforcement measures that Gallegy has supported in recent years are bills that would require the mandatory use of the E-Verify System; efforts that would increase Social Security no-match checking and require that any work whose information is false be fired from their jobs within 60 days if they cannot clear up discrepancies; efforts to require Immigration and Customs Enforcement to follow-up on SSA no-match workers and deport those here illegally; efforts to require the Department of Justice to sue cities that have "sanctuary" policies; and measures to require states to end poicies that provide in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

Gallegly was endorsed in 2010 by Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC), which is a non-partisan organization that endorses candidates for Congress and Senate who oppose any form of amnesty, path to citizenship, or taxpayer benefits for illegal aliens.

As a condition of receiving ALIPAC’s endorsement, Gallegly had to pledge that “[i]f elected or re-elected to the US Congress, I will oppose any form of Amnesty or path to citizenship for illegal aliens, including Comprehensive Immigration Reform which would turn millions of illegal immigrants into voters thus destroying future borders of America. I will use the full power of my office, including impeachment if necessary, to insure the Executive Branch secures America's border immediately and begins to adequately enforce the existing immigration and border laws of the United States, which were enacted by Congress at the behest of America's citizenry. I understand that the failure of the Executive Branch to secure our borders and enforce existing immigration laws is depriving all Americans of a Republican form of government and depriving our states of protection from invasion as mandated by the US Constitution. I intend to use the power of Congress to immediately remedy this problem that is costing many Americans their jobs, wages, taxpayer resources, property, security, and sometimes their very lives.” 

In addition to receiving the ALIPAC endorsement, Numbers USA, one of the leading immigration restrictionist advocacy organizations in the United States, declared that Gallegly was one of several "true reformers” running for the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 general election because of his total support for its immigration legislative agenda.  In order to be so designated, a candidate has to have expressed explicit support for 12  NumbersUSA priorities, including opposition to "offering he officially estimated 11 million people illegally in the U.S. long-term work permits and/or a path to citizenship (whether through a blanket amnesty or an 'earned legalization' or other form;" support for making participation in the E-Verify system mandatory for all businesses; support for reducing federal funding for state and local governments that adopt sanctuary policies and other rewards for illegal foreign workers and the companies that hire them; support for ending birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented aliens who are born in the United States; limit family-based immigration to spouses and minor children; support for eliminating the diversity visa lottery program; and support for reducing overall levels of immigration to around 250,000 persons per year.

For his part, Representative King expressed disappointment over the decision to deny him the chairmanship of the immigration panel.  However, he indicated that his failure to win the position might free him up to be more aggressive on immigration during the 112th Congress than he otherwise might have been.  He told the Des Moines Register, “I’m going to drive an immigration agenda, and it’s going to be with probably more vigor than I would have otherwise, with no reservations about pushing hard for it,” King said. “It isn’t about selling people in Congress. It’s about winning the debate with the American people.  If the American people take a position, they will adjust the positions of the members in Congress.”  “I would suggest that I’m a member with fewer limitations than I might have had otherwise,” he added.


Click on the "Play" button, above, to see video of the March 20, 1996, House floor debate on the Gallegly amendment that sought to deny undocumented alien children a right to elementary and secondary education in the United States.