House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said Friday that President Obama was "damaging the presidency itself" by using his executive authority to prevent the deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants, and the House would act to counter the president.

"With this action, the president has chosen to deliberately sabotage any chance of enacting bipartisan reforms that he claims to seek," Mr. Boehner told reporters. "And as I told him yesterday, he's damaging the presidency itself."

In his address on Thursday, President Obama had an answer for critics of his immigration reform executive action and that was, "Pass a bill."

The House did pass a bill before the August recess, a $694 million border appropriations bill, that would overturn laws already passed to protect the rights of immigrants such as advances achieved under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. The bill would have also denied an extension of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA). Specifically, the measure would change The Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 so that unaccompanied minors from Central America wouldn't be recognized as refugees but undergo the same expedited repatriation process as Mexican children. The bill included $35 million to deploy National Guards to the border, $22 million to hire new temporary immigration judges, and $197 million for the Department of Health and Human Services to house unaccompanied children.

The Hill reported "Another provision in the bill would allow border patrol agents to access federal land within 100 miles of the Mexican border so that they can track down illegal immigrants."

At the time of the bill's vote, The Hill reported Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said the measure would prevent President Obama from overstepping his executive authority, "This just restores the constitutional authority of the United States Congress, and it says, President Obama, don't continue to violate the Constitution."

Before President Obama's address on immigration reform on Thursday night, there had been threats of a government shutdown, but Republican leaders have also warned their members against embarking on that strategy, as well as cautioning them against talking about impeaching the president.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, (CA) the House majority leader, warned against the president's "brazen power grab."

Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that the president's actions were not only unconstitutional, but also "a threat to our democracy," and promised to "use every tool at my disposal to stop the president's unconstitutional actions from being implemented," according to The New York Times.

Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a longtime critic of broad immigration overhaul told the conservative Heritage Foundation, "We are not going to impeach or move to impeach." He did insist that Congress can use its power over spending to affect the immigration initiative, according to The Associated Press.

Republicans are looking for a solution that would satisfy angry conservatives without alienating moderates, Hispanics and other voters who will be crucial in the 2016 presidential election. Possibilities include suing Obama or trying to fight his moves through the budget process.