Boehner ally: Speaker ‘wants’ to do something on immigration

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Monday told MSNBC that there “probably will” be movement on immigration in the next Congress.

“I think we probably will,” Cole said when asked if Washington would see movement on the issue.

“I think Speaker Boehner wants to do something on that,” said Cole, a close ally of Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

{mosads}He added, though, that it depends on what Democrats do. 

“A lot of it depends on whether Democrats want a solution, or they want to use it as a weapon in the next election,” he added.

Cole did not directly mention President Obama’s planned executive action on immigration, which Boehner has warned would “poison the well” and remove the possibility Congress would act.

Obama says he will not wait on the executive actions, pointing out that Boehner did not bring up a bill in the more than a year after the Senate passed an immigration bill in June 2013.

Cole pointed to Democrats’ control of Congress when Obama first took office and noted immigration was not a priority then.

“And with all due respect to the president who talks about this, he promised in ’08 he’d have a bill on the floor in 100 days, and he never did,” Cole said. “So, it’s a tough issue. I’ll give everybody that, but it’s also something we need to deal with, but there’s a lot of issues we need to deal with. We need to get the economy I think, first and foremost, moving again.”