Top Republican and Democratic legislators met with President Barack Obama at the White House Friday, but evaded reporters by departing through a side door of the West Wing.
Even some of their senior deputies were kept outside the meeting, which was limited to the president, top leaders and immediate aides.
The leaders included House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
In a statement released after the meeting, Boehner’s office said he warned Obama against going ahead with his planned unilateral immigration amnesty.
“The Speaker warned that unilateral action by the president on executive amnesty will erase any chances of doing immigration reform and will also make it harder for Congress and the White House to work together successfully on other areas where there might otherwise be common ground,” the statement said.
“The Speaker made clear that the American people’s top priority remains jobs and the economy… [and] reminded the president that there are more than 40 House-passed jobs bills that represent a great place to start on immediate, bipartisan action to help create more private-sector jobs,” said the statement.
Boehner “has previously said that building the Keystone pipeline, restoring the 40-hour work week, encouraging our businesses to hire more veterans, and supporting innovative charter schools are examples of the types of common-sense solutions that offer a good starting point in January,” the statement said.
A White House statement said, “The President reiterated his commitment to taking action on immigration reform in light of the House’s inability to pass a comprehensive bill.”
Hill conservatives worry that GOP leaders will cool the amnesty confrontation by caving to Obama’s immigration gambit.
Those conservatives are now pushing GOP leaders to include anti-amnesty spending rules in the incomplete 2015 spending bill.
Conservatives’ suspicion about GOP leaders was boosted by a Nov. 7 Wall Street Journal article, which reported that Boehner had engaged in back-channel talks about immigration with Obama until June 2014.
The secret talks failed when Boehner gave up hope that Obama could negotiate a deal, just after Majority Leader Eric Cantor lost his seat during a primary, and Obama allowed a wave of 130,000 Central American migrants to cross the border.
Obama’s Nov. 5 promise of an executive amnesty was echoed Nov. 7, by Obama’s top communications aide, Dan Pfeiffer. “We’re going to do what we think is best for the country,” Pfeiffer told Bloomberg reporters in Washington. “If they have disagreements about the things we do, they have the capacity to legislate.”
However, the new GOP majority isn’t large enough to overcome a Democratic filibuster or an Obama veto, which can only be overcome if 66 senators vote against the president.
Obama promised the immigration rollback to Latino activists prior to the election. Those activists want the president to simply give residency cards and work permits to seven million illegal immigrants, regardless of current law.
Multiple poll show that lopsided majorities oppose an Oval Office amnesty and want the president to work with Congress instead.
Since Obama’s Nov. 5 threat, GOP leaders, including Boehner, McConnell and Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, have uniformly denounced the planned amnesty.
Boehner said the president is playing with matches, McConnell described it as a red rag to a bull, and Priebus described it as “nuclear threat” to Congress’ constitutional authority to write laws.
Even business advocates for an amnesty have urged Obama to delay his planned amnesty out of fear it will torpedo their hopes for a bill that would provide companies with a larger supply of foreign guest workers.