House Speaker John A. Boehner would not say Friday what action he and his colleagues will take to push back against President Obama’s executive immigration moves, but vowed something will happen.
“The House will, in fact, act,” the Ohio Republican said at a brief morning press conference to respond to what he called a break-down in democracy stemming from Mr. Obama’s claims of unilateral powers to halt deportations and grant work permits to as many as 5 million illegal immigrants with family ties or who meet other criteria the president said make them the wrong targets for deportation.
Mr. Boehner’s House colleagues have been struggling with what options they have. Some had hoped to use the annual spending process to defund the president’s action, but on Thursday the Appropriations Committee said that was a fruitless avenue.
Mr. Boehner said he believes Congress should still work on immigration, but said Mr. Obama’s moves signaled he “has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms.”
The speaker also predicted another surge of illegal immigrants next year, similar to the one involving children and families from Central America this past summer, which took the Homeland Security Department by surprise and sent the administration scrambling to adjust.
Tens of thousands of children and families have been granted at least temporary admittance to the U.S. while they await the outcome of their cases, which could take years.
“Next summer it could be worse,” he said.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.