Obama on Immigration: I Will Fix It 'On My Own'

Monday from the White House Rose Garden, President Barack Obama delivered a defiant statement on immigration reform legislation that has stalled in the U.S. House vowing to take executive action “on his own.”

Obama claimed it is only after Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) made it clear last week that the House will not vote on immigration reform this year that he will reluctantly act on his own saying “I take executive action only when we have a serious problem, a serious issue and Congress chooses to do nothing, and in this situation, the failure of the House Republicans to pass a darn bill is bad for our security, it’s bad economy and it’s bad for our future” adding he will ‘fix as much of our immigration system as I can on my own”

“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,” he said.  “It makes no sense. It’s not on the level. It’s just politics, plain and simple … [they] are unwilling to stand up to the Tea Party in order to do whats best for the country.” 

The president said he will immediately have Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Attorney General Eric Holder move immigration enforcement resources from the interior section of the United States to the border and the president ordered the Cabinet members to give him recommendations for additional executive actions he can take “on his own” by the end of the summer.

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