WASHINGTON - Immigration reform will be shelved for streamlined enforcement of current laws in legislative priorities under a new Republican-controlled House, Rep. Lamar Smith said Tuesday.

"The enforcement of our immigration laws is critical to both our national security and economic prosperity. We need to know who is entering our country, and why," the San Antonio Republican said.

Smith is expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee in the next Congress. He laid out his potential priorities for the panel on Tuesday.

He said the committee under his leadership would "enact policies that will better secure our border and discourage illegal immigration, human smuggling and drug trafficking."

Escalating violence in Mexico due to the drug trade, and U.S. highway signs along the border warning of unsafe areas because of smugglers, require increased measures.

"American citizens should not have to fear for their lives on U.S. soil," Smith said.

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House Republicans are expected to select leaders and committee chairs by mid-December.

Smith and other GOP leaders support Arizona in its crackdown on illegal immigration, and oppose birthright citizenship and earned-citizenship proposals.

In addition to immigration enforcement, Smith said his committee would revisit plans to close the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center, take up patent reform legislation, crackdown on frivolous lawsuits and combat child pornography and exploitation.

Smith, a frequent critic of the Obama administration's enforcement of immigration laws, this year called for congressional hearings to hold administration officials accountable.

He also wants worksite enforcement to ensure "jobs go to unemployed citizens and legal immigrants."

Some observers expect Smith to pick up where he left off in 1996, when he was chairman of the subcommittee on immigration and wrote legislation to streamline deportation of illegal immigrants.

Those efforts were criticized by Democrats and Latino rights groups.

"I don't have any reason to think that there has been any change in Lamar Smith's thinking on immigration," said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the liberal-leaning Center for American Progress. "I think he tends to be extremely enforcement oriented and so I expect that there will be that continued myopic focus."

Smith wants to do away with the practice of birthright citizenship, but does not support repeal of the constitutional amendment.

But Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, poised to chair the immigration subcommittee, has pledged legislation to repeal birthright citizenship to end what he calls the "anchor baby" industry by illegal immigrants.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., the current subcommittee chair, favors comprehensive reform with earned legalization. So does Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, a subcommittee member and the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus task force on civil rights.

Gonzalez is likely to be bumped when Democrats lose seats on the panel. "I was a very junior member," he said.

Smith joined GOP lawmakers in support of Arizona after the Obama administration sued the state over a law passed to crackdown on illegal immigration.

That lawsuit is under review by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

He said the state has the right to enforce laws that the federal government has failed to enforce.

Conservative groups support Smith and Republican leaders in their push for immigration enforcement.

"The cause of immigration and enforcement and numerical reductions was a huge winner in Tuesday's elections, promising that immigration issues will finally be addressed as job issues in the next Congress," said Roy Beck of Numbers USA, which seeks lower immigration levels.