ABSTRACT
Lamar Smith, the new chairman of the House Immigration Subcommittee, was, like many of the new leaders in the House, a Texan. The center of his district had been settled by refugees-Germans who fled their land when the democratic revolution of 1848 had failed. But 150 years later, the district consisted mainly of suburbs north of San Antonio and of Austin, ranch lands, and some oil country. It was 82 percent white, and solidly Republican, having voted for Bush over Clinton by more than two to one in the 1992 presidential election.2
