Immigration Law, News & Reform 2014: Boehner Blasts House GOP Members Over Stalled Immigration Proposal
During a speech event in John Boehner's Ohio hometown on Thursday, the House Speaker reportedly mocked his fellow GOP Congress members for the gridlock that has stalled immigration reform.
Boehner appeared at the Middletown Rotary Club for a luncheon in his home district of Madison Township where he gave scathing remarks about the members in his Republican party, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
"Here the attitude. Ohhh. Don't make me do this. Ohhh. This is too hard," Boehner lamented, adding, "We get elected to make choices. We get elected to solve problems and it's remarkable to me how many of my colleagues just don't want to ... They'll take the pat of least resistance."
Boehner said in his speech that he has received a lot of flack for wanting to tackle the immigration overhaul issue for the last 16 to 17 months.
"I've had every brick and bat and arrow shot at me over this issue just because I wanted to deal with it," Boehner admitted. "I didn't say it was going to be easy."
The U.S. senate approved the Democrat-led immigration reform proposal last year before being sent to the GOP-controlled House for its vote. The House has since refused to pass the bill that would have included a path to citizenship for million of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S.
Boehner has advocated for the proposal and wants border security and immigration enforcement to be a priority but he can't sway the House on the matter, according to the Enquirer.
According to the Wall Street Journal last week, Boehner said he was "hell-bent on getting this done this year," at a recent fundraising event.
Much of the angst among the GOP House members surrounding the immigration proposal comes from their belief that the Democrats who drafted it want to grant "amnesty" to the undocumented immigrants, Fox News reported.
Despite the recent rise arrests and deportations of undocumented immigrants, several Republican Senators accused President Barack Obama of "an astonishing disregard for the Constitution," regarding his consideration of only targeting violent undocumented immigrants.