Obama will take two key steps in his new immigration push, a White House official says. Obama to take action on immigration

President Barack Obama plans to take administrative actions in the coming months to address problems with the country’s immigration policies, he said Monday — a clear acknowledgment that a legislative overhaul is effectively dead this year.

“I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue and Congress chooses to do nothing,” Obama said in the Rose Garden. “And in this situation, the failure of the House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our economy” and bad for the country.


Obama said he spoke with Speaker John Boehner last Tuesday at a White House event honoring professional golfers, during which the Ohio Republican said he would not be bringing an immigration bill to the floor “at least for the remainder of this year,” according to Obama. Boehner’s office confirmed the discussion.

( Earlier on POLITICO: Obama: I'll say what's on my mind)

“In our conversation last week, I told the president what I have been telling him for months: the American people and their elected officials don’t trust him to enforce the law as written,” Boehner said in a statement. “Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue.”

The announcement reflects growing pressure Obama has faced in recent months from immigration reform backers and comes at a time when a flood of unaccompanied children are crossing the southern border. That development, on top of Eric Cantor’s surprise loss, appeared to dash any remaining hope of a comprehensive rewrite of immigration laws this year.

In his announcement, Obama repeatedly hammered House Republicans — arguing that they are aware of the problems with existing immigration laws but are unwilling to take action.”

“It makes no sense,” he said. “It’s not on the level. It’s just politics, plain and simple.”

( Also on POLITICO: Obama seeks funding for border)

Obama will take two key steps in his new immigration push, a White House official said ahead of the president’s announcement.

First, he will direct Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder to shift immigration enforcement resources from the interior section of the United States to the border. And Obama is asking administration officials to send him recommendations on other additional actions that he can pursue without the blessing of Congress — suggestions that Obama wants by the end of the summer.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), one of the top advocates on Capitol Hill for immigration reform, noted Monday that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus has already submitted several proposals to Obama on how he can change his immigration enforcement policies.

“The antidote for do-nothingism is doing something and the president is doing for the American people what the Republican-controlled Congress refused to do,” Gutierrez said. “This is the president I voted for.”

The president summoned immigration advocates to the White House for a meeting before his speech, according to multiple sources who received invites — a meeting that was not listed on his public schedule.

Obama told the 15 or so advocates assembled at the meeting that he will examine all options within his constitutional powers to relieve deportations of undocumented immigrants, and he also asked the advocates for their recommendations, according to one person who attended the meeting.

At the afternoon meeting, “I think we were just sharing the grief and pain of what this means for so many people,” said Jim Wallis, the president and founder of Sojourners, said in a phone interview. “It wasn’t just kind of a political, factual, here’s-what-we’re-doing-next, bullet point meeting.”

Friday marked one year since the Democratic-led Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill with 68 votes — legislation that the White House and other Democrats, and even some Senate Republicans, hoped to see the House take up.

“I held off on pressuring them for a long time to give Speaker Boehner the space he needed to get his fellow Republicans on board,” but a year proved insufficient, Obama said.

Immigration reform was always going to be an uphill slog in the Republican-led House this year, but two recent developments hammered the nail in the coffin for prospects of an overhaul.

First, Cantor (R-Va.) lost his primary in a race that focused, in part, on his backing for incremental immigration reform measures — a position that his challenger, Dave Brat, portrayed as “amnesty.”

And record numbers of unaccompanied children have been apprehended trying to cross into the United States, primarily in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. Though the reasons for the influx of unaccompanied minors are complex, it has deepened Republicans’ belief that Obama can’t be trusted to enforce immigration laws, since they see his policies as a driving factor in the crisis.

Obama formally notified Congress on Monday that he is seeking additional funds and expanded powers to respond to the influx of unaccompanied children in a letter to Hill leaders.

Boehner made a mention of the ongoing crisis in his statement Monday, accusing Obama of refusing to work with Congress and rather, pursue executive actions independent of lawmakers. More broadly, Boehner said last week that he plans to proceed with a lawsuit against Obama for misuse of executive powers.

“The crisis at our southern border reminds us all of the critical importance of fixing our broken immigration system,” Boehner said Monday. “It is sad and disappointing that – faced with this challenge – President Obama won’t work with us, but is instead intent on going it alone with executive orders that can’t and won’t fix these problems.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) defended Obama’s decision to pursue administrative actions on immigration and instead blamed Boehner for refusing to take up immigration legislation.

“Speaker Boehner is out of excuses and his failure of leadership is enormous,” Reid said. “Our broken immigration system is one of the biggest challenges we face as a nation and Speaker Boehner knows that addressing it is the right thing to do, yet the tea party spooked him into cowering in a corner.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who helped craft the immigration legislation that passed the Senate, said Obama now has “no choice” but to pursue administrative relief on deportations.

“The real solution to our broken immigration system is comprehensive reform and we have been as patient as we could be with our House colleagues in giving them both time and flexibility to put forward a proposal to reform the system,” Schumer said.