John Boehner: 'The House will, in fact, act

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) promised Friday morning that the House would take some action to fight back against President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration, although he said Republicans were still working through the details on what exact steps they would take.

"We're working with our members, looking at the options that are available to us," he told reporters. "But I will say to you, the House will, in fact, act."

A little more than 12 hours after Obama made his long-awaited move to give temporary legal status to 5 million illegal immigrants, Boehner said that decision has ruined any chance of working with Congress to find bipartisan proposals to reform the nation's immigration system.

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

He also warned that the executive order continues to show Obama's disregard for the law and the legal process, as he did by making 38 unilateral changes to Obamacare without consulting Congress. Boehner said that posture has eroded any trust among Republicans that Obama is a willing partner on immigration or other tough issues.

"All year long, I've warned the president that by taking unilateral action on matters such as his health care law, or by threatening action repeatedly on immigration, he was making it impossible to build the trust necessary to work together," Boehner said. "As I warned the president, you can't ask the elected representatives of the people to trust you to enforce the law if you're constantly demonstrating that you can't be trusted to enforce the law."

"President Obama has turned a deaf ear to the people that he was elected and we were elected to serve," he added. "But we will not do that. In the days ahead, the people's house will rise to this challenge. We will not stand idle as the president undermines the rule of law in our country, and places lives at risk."

The Obama administration indicated Thursday night that it will take three months or longer to implement key parts of Obama's action, which could give Republicans enough of a window to find a way to attack the move with legislation.