Loffgren to Head Immigration Subcommittee

As an immigration lawyer in northern California, Zoe Lofgren helped struggling immigrant farm workers keep their families together and stay in the United States.

Now, years later, the Democratic representative from San Jose is poised to take over the House subcommittee on immigration. Those experiences from the front lines could resonate anew as she helps direct the next congressional debate over the nation’s population of undocumented immigrants.

With her liberal credentials and pro immigrant views, Lofgren embodies what many believe is a new day in the immigration debate as Congress, now under Democratic control, again confronts one of the nation’s most contentious issues.

A potential Republican ally is Representative Jeff Flake of Arizona, a House co sponsor of the McCain-Kennedy bill, which served as the basis for a comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate last year. Senior Republicans have removed Flake from his seat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Flake believes his stance on immigration may have been a contributing factor.

“I have a contrary view to my own party,” Flake said. “I was an easy target.” Click here.

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