Representative Raul Labrador (R., Idaho) said Wednesday “it would be crazy” for House Republicans to enter negotiations with President Obama on immigration reform, given the way the president has acted during the latest round of budget negotiations.

“He’s trying to destroy the Republican party . . . and I think that anything that we do right now with this president on immigration will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destory the Republican party, and not to get good policies,” Labrador said at a meeting with conservative lawmakers hosted by the Heritage Foundation. “We agree on things on tax reform, we agree on things on entitlement reform. There are things that we are on the same page about, and he’s uwilling to negotiate on those things? I don’t see how he would, in good faith, negotiate with us on immigration.”


President Obama announced Tuesday that he would begin pressuring Congress to act on immigration reform ”the day after” the budget stalemate is resolved.

Labrador, who considers himself a “proponent of immigration reform,” had been a member of a House working group similar to the Senate’s “Gang of Eight,” but left the group in June after a dispute over health-care costs for illegal immigrants.