In the News

The Republican-run U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday along party lines to oppose President Obama's immigration reform plans and file a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court saying so.

The House brief will oppose the President in the case of U.S. vs. Texas. The Supreme Court is taking up whether Obama acted legally with plans to defer deporting as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants with deep, lengthy family ties in America.

The House will be represented by ex-Solicitor General Paul Clement, who spoke for House Republicans in arguing against marriage equality at the high court three years ago. 

Clement is also the legal counsel for plaintiffs in a federal court challenge to Seattle's $15-an-hour minimum wage law.

Five Republicans broke with their party on the resolution, which passed by a 234-186 vote. The dissidents included three Latino Republicans from Florida, U.S. Reps. Carlos Curbelo, Mario Diaz-Balart and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

The Washington delegation broke down on party lines.

U.S. Reps. Dan Newhouse and Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., whose districts hold large Hispanic populations, voted to fight against Obama's immigration order. So did Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., the delegation's lone Latina.

The only Republican House member from the Puget Sound area, Rep. Dave Reichert, also voted to mount the legal challenge. 

Reichert's district was expanded in 2011 to include Chelan and Okanogan Counties in Central Washington, both with large Latino populations.

Five Democratic House members from Washington voted against the resolution. Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., did not vote.

The Republican leaders of the House have taken a hard line against immigration reform.

The U.S. Senate, on a bipartisan 68-31 vote, passed in 2013 a comprehensive immigration reform plan.

The Senate bill never even received a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Leaders did not allow a floor vote on the plan.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., a member of the Judiciary Committee, took strong exception to the House action. She called for a floor vote on immigration reform.

"Everyone agrees that our immigration system is broken but instead of voting on a solution, Congress is again wasting time on a political gimmick that does not address real problems," DelBene said.

"The president took lawful action to help families being torn apart by our current system. If Republicans take issue with that, they should stop obstructing meaningful debate and allow a vote on comprehensive immigration reform."

It's no gimmick, argued Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan.

"If we're going to maintain the principle of self-government, if we're going to maintain this critical founding principle of government by consent of the governed, then the legislative branch needs to be writing our laws -- not the executive branch, and certainly not a branch of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats," Ryan said.

The resolution underscores a paradox in this election year.

Ryan and other House Republicans have implicitly criticized anti-immigrant statements by Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

At the same time, however, the House has cast a series of votes favoring deportation, even of the DREAMERs, young people who have lived almost all of their lives in the U.S.

The U.S. vs. Texas case had drawn briefs from this state.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson has filed a brief with the Supreme Court in support of Obama's plan to defer deportations.

Another pro-President brief has been filed by OneAmerica, an immigrant rights group that has roots in both labor and business.