Congressman to Seek Cuts in Immigration : Borders: New chairman of House panel says legal entries into U.S. should be significantly reduced. A Senate bill is expected to propose similar limits.

Expanding on the growing national sentiment to shut out illegal immigrants, the new chairman of the House immigration subcommittee said Thursday that he will seek legislation to significantly reduce the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) refused to set an exact limit but said he would like to see the flow of immigrants cut in half. “I’m talking about trimming legal immigration--not a moratorium--to the historic generous levels of the past. Every year we are setting unprecedented high levels for legal immigration,” Smith said at a morning news conference.

More than 900,000 legal immigrants entered the country in 1993, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. An aide to Smith said the congressman was considering seeking a cap of about 500,000 annually.

Smith, who chairs the immigration panel of the House Judiciary Committee, said he wanted to focus on the relatives allowed to join family members already in the country.

“We want to preserve the nuclear family and the importance of immediate family members,” said Smith, “but when we allow married children and their relatives, pretty soon you’re talking distant cousins.”

A Senate bill, sponsored by Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.), Smith’s counterpart in the upper chamber, will also seek to reduce the number of legal immigrants, and Smith expects the two chairmen’s positions “to be very, very similar.”

Smith’s immigration subcommittee will begin hearings next week, but he does not expect to complete action on a bill until the end of May. Simpson and Smith have also discussed holding joint hearings in an attempt to minimize infighting between the two houses of Congress over the volatile issue.

Outlining the bill he expects to emerge from his committee, Smith made the following points:

* A border-crossing fee, proposed by California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and the Clinton Administration to generate revenue for immigration enforcement, is impractical and lacks majority support in the subcommittee.

* He predicted that the subcommittee would not pass a “federal 187” provision similar to the legally besieged California ballot initiative that cuts off education and most other benefits to illegal immigrants. “Our priority should be on passing a bill (but not one) in direct conflict with Supreme Court rulings.”

* Although supporting reimbursement to states for the costs of incarcerating illegal immigrants, Smith said he opposed federal reimbursement to states for all other costs of illegal immigration. Smith said such full-scale reimbursements would amount to an entitlement program that would eliminate any incentives for states to solve immigration-related problems.

The four-term Smith chaired the GOP immigration task force in the last Congress. He seeks heightened border security, expedited deportation procedures, a verification system to weed out fraudulent work documents, tougher employment sanctions and a crackdown on illegal immigrants getting benefits.

Smith said that during the period of 1925 to 1975, legal immigration into the country was half what it is today. Not only are more immigrants arriving under current rules, but fewer are becoming American citizens, Smith said.

Smith’s call to return to the “historic generous (immigration) levels” of the early part of this century was questioned by a noted immigration researcher.

“Levels of immigration have varied dramatically during the country’s history, and there is no real average or normal amount,” said John J. Miller, vice president of the Center for Equal Opportunity in Washington.