Gonzalez calls Boehner's remarks 'outrageous'

ATLANTA - House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday the House will not hold formal, compromise talks on the Senate-passed comprehensive immigration bill, a fresh signal from the Republican leadership that the issue is dead for the year.

Thursday, Jerry Gonzalez, the Executive Director of GALEO (the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials), called Boehner's remarks "outrageous."

"This year, he has had the opportunity to get his party back on track with Latino, Asian American, and immigrant voters, but instead has chosen to listen to a far-right small minority in his party and fail the American people," Gonzalez said. "He and the House leadership should be working non-stop and doing everything they can to end this moral crisis and stop the millions of families that are being torn apart."

Gonzalez added that "failing to lead is an abdication of responsibility. Speaker Boehner should lead and produce a solution for the American people and the millions of immigrant families impacted by our broken immigration system."

Boehner defended the House position at a news conference Wednesday, saying "The idea that we're going to take up a 1,300-page bill that no one had ever read, which is what the Senate did, is not going to happen in the House and frankly I'll make clear we have no intention of ever going to conference on the Senate bill."

(See separate story on Boehner's remarks. Click on the link below.)

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)