WASHINGTON — House Democrats on Thursday denounced an immigration bill authored by Rep. Lamar Smith as “petty partisan politics” and accused the San Antonio Republican of being a hypocrite for introducing the measure to spur deportations.

Smith filed the “Hinder the Administration's Legalization Temptation” Act, or HALT, after the White House announced it would prioritize deportations to remove violent criminals and terrorists.

“The Obama administration has ignored the will of Congress and the American people by using executive branch authority to allow illegal immigrants to remain in the United States,” said Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

But Democrats distributed a letter signed by Smith in 1999 asking the Clinton administration to use more prosecutorial discretion in immigration cases, taking hardship into account in cases involving deportations.

“This contradiction demonstrates yet another attempt by Rep. Smith to engage in a political game centered on blaming our broken immigration system on immigrants,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin.

Smith said Democrats were being “dishonest,” and that portions of the letter distributed by Democratic lawmakers are taken out of context.

“This letter requested that the Immigration and Naturalization Service issue guidelines for removal proceedings in the most sympathetic cases involving legal — not illegal — immigrants,” Smith said.

Still, Doggett said Smith's bill is a distraction from efforts to improve our immigration system through reforms like the DREAM Act, which would provide legal status to immigrants brought into the country illegally but who have completed college or military service.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., said the HALT bill “is petty partisan politics at its worst and trivializes the immigration issue — an issue where families and lives literally are in the balance — and it turns the immigration issue into a game of political ‘gotcha.'”

Smith's bill has more than a dozen Republican sponsors in the House, including Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Irving.

Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he'll file a companion bill in the Senate.

Smith filed the bill after John Morton, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director, issued memos this year ordering agency officials to exercise prosecutorial discretion.

Immigrant rights groups and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus have pressured President Barack Obama to use discretion with regard to student immigrants seeking permanent residency, or illegal immigrant parents of children born in the United States.

“That is one of my complaints with the administration,” said Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

“And that's what we've asked the him to do, use discretion so immigrants don't have to be relocated when filing or processing papers,” Gonzalez said.

Last year, Morton testified that ICE has the capacity to deport about 400,000 immigrants per year.