Boehner Touts Immigration Reform: 'The Sooner We Do It The Better'

America’s immigration system is a “mess” and reforming it would help the economy, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute about “resetting America’s economic foundation” Boehner addressed immigration reform when asked by a member of the audience. 

“Yeah, I think immigration reform would help our economy, but you’ve got to secure the borders first — we’ve got a mess and I think everybody knows we’ve got a mess. Our legal system is broken, our borders aren’t secure. And then we’ve got the problem of those that are here without documents,” Boehner said. 

“It needs to be fixed,” he continued. “We’re a nation of immigrants. The sooner we do it the better off the country would be.”

House Republicans did not move forward on immigration reform this year due what Boehner and many other Republicans said was a lack of confidence that President Obama would apply the law as passed. 

“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.  Until that changes, it is going to be difficult to make progress on this issue,” Boehner said in a statement this summer responding to Obama’s assertion that the Speaker told him the House would not move on immigration reform this year. 

Earlier this month Boehner raised the possibility of moving on immigration reform next year, as long as Obama followed the law.