Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday said President Obama is poised to announce “comprehensive” executive action on immigration.

“I do not want and will not get out ahead of the president and the announcement that he will make in the coming days," Johnson said at the Washington think tank New Democrat Network.

“Legislative action is always preferable, but we’ve waited now for years to get Congress to act, and Congress has not acted.”

ADVERTISEMENT

The White House on Wednesday said the president will announce his “commonsense steps” on immigration in a prime-time address on Thursday evening.

Johnson said he believed Obama’s policy moves would fall within “a fairly wide latitude within existing executive authority to fix the system.”

“They will address a number of things, including border security,” Johnson said. The “comprehensive reforms are all within our existing legal authority to fix the broken immigration system.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday on the reports of the president's visit to Las Vegas.

Press secretary Josh Earnest was evasive when asked about the timing of an announcement on Tuesday, saying only that reviewing the issue was something on the president’s “agenda this week.”

“There is a lot of speculation both on the Hill and across town about this. I don't have any additional updates as it relates to timing,” Earnest said.

Republicans have said the president should not take unilateral action on immigration, warning it would be a grave overreach of presidential authority that could “poison the well” for cooperation in the next Congress. House Republicans are debating whether to block implementation of the order in legislation to fund the government.

Some voices in the GOP have suggested that the scope of Obama’s order — which could include delayed deportation for up to 5 million people — could be an impeachable offense.

The Republican chairmen of the House Homeland Security and Judiciary committees on Wednesday said they are “disappointed” in Obama’s decision to move forward, calling it a “slap in the face to the American people and the Constitution.”

“The Constitution is clear that it is Congress’ duty to write our laws and, once they are enacted, it is the president’s responsibility to enforce them. Something as important as changing our immigration laws cannot be forced by unilateral action by the president,” Reps. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Bob Goodlatte Robert (Bob) William GoodlatteNo documents? Hoping for legalization? Be wary of Joe Biden Press: Trump's final presidential pardon: himself USCIS chief Cuccinelli blames Paul Ryan for immigration inaction MORE (R-Va.) wrote in a letter to Obama.

If Obama proceeds, the chairmen warned they “will be forced to use the tools afforded to Congress by the Constitution to stop your administration from successfully carrying out your plan.”

Republicans could have considerable public support for battling Obama's plan, as a new poll released Wednesday from NBC News and The Wall Street Journal found 48 percent of adults oppose executive action by President Obama on immigration, while 38 percent support it.

Secretary Johnson said that he has been “disheartened and disappointed” by how “volatile” the immigration debate has become.

"It can't be that we're not allowed to lift a finger to fix the broken immigration system until Congress acts — we’ve been waiting for Congress to act,” Johnson said.

He suggested members of Congress were being hypocritical, arguing many members were “very interested” in the administration taking action to stem a flow of people illegally crossing the southern border into the U.S. over the summer.

“We can’t have policies that operate as a magnet for future illegal migration. And I believe that there are ways that a number of policy priorities can be reflected, implemented and coexistent with one another,” he said.

— Justin Sink and Peter Sullivan contributed.

Last updated at 1:18 p.m.