President Barack Obama vowed to act on his own on immigration reform on Monday after House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner told him Republicans would not permit a vote on immigration legislation this year, according to The Associated Press.
Obama, in a White House Rose Garden appearance, said he had told his senior advisers to prepare recommendations for him on immigration by the end of the summer and that he would act on them without delay, the AP reported.
Obama said he has directed border officials to allocate resources to increase security along the U.S. border amid a controversy over tens of thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America surging across the southern border, according to the AP.
Obama said most of the immigrant children will be returned to their home countries once their legal cases are adjudicated, the AP reported.
"The only thing I can't do is stand by and do nothing," Obama said, giving few hints about what steps he might take by executive action, according to the AP. Even as he blamed House Republicans for frustrating him on immigration, Obama asked Congress for more money and additional authority to deal with the unexpected crisis of a surge of unaccompanied Central American youths arriving by the thousands at the Southern border.
Obama wants flexibility to speed the youths' deportations and $2 billion in new money to hire more immigration judges and open more detention facilities, requests that got a cool reception from congressional Republicans and angered advocates, the AP reported.
"Our country and our economy would be stronger today if House Republicans had allowed a simple yes-or-no vote on this bill or, for that matter, any bill," Obama said in the Rose Garden, according to the AP. "They'd be following the will of the majority of the American people, who support reform. And instead they've proven again and again that they're unwilling to stand up to the tea party in order to do what's best for the country."
