From: Recorednet.com

The upheaval of the 2010 midterm elections shifted the chairmanship of the House’s immigration committee from Silicon Valley’s Zoe Lofgren to Simi Valley’s Elton Gallegly.

While both representatives hail from California, the committee’s direction will be strikingly different.

Under Gallegly, a Republican, the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration panel is likely to focus on enforcement issues - cracking down on immigrants illegally crossing the border, penalizing employers who hire undocumented immigrants and preserving jobs for American workers.

Lofgren, a Democrat, focused on reforming the immigration system - reducing the backlog of citizenship applications, speeding up the visa process and offering citizenship to immigrant children.

The shift diminishes expectations that comprehensive immigration reform - once a top priority of President Barack Obama - will be enacted in the current Congress.

It also highlights the enormous divide, both nationally and within California, over immigration.

The panel, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, is the hub of all immigration-related legislation in the House. Its members also include Reps. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River, and Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles.

In conservative-leaning Simi Valley, concerns over undocumented workers prompted the City Council to mandate a system to check the immigration status of all new city workers. In Democratic-leaning Silicon Valley, where many high-tech firms employ foreign workers, the San Jose Police Department recently affirmed the city’s refusal to arrest residents solely based on their immigration status.

“Californians have passed some of the most restrictive anti-immigrant legislation, Propositions 187 and 227, while also championing immigrant rights,â€