Speaker Paul Ryan(R-WI) has favored comprehensive immigration reform. There is a majority in the House to pass it. But, Ryan will not bring it to a vote.
Why? His excuse, itself a lie, is that President Obama has not enforced the border, and hence he cannot take up an immigration bill while Obama is still president. He also uses the President's frustration with the small minority that hamstrung the bipartisan Senate bill that resulted in executive orders as excuses.
This is an opportunity for the President to call Ryan's bluff. Instead of scoffing at Ryan's lame and lying excuse, the President should embrace it by stating that he would be happy to sign a comprehensive immigration reform bill, like the one passed by the Senate, but that did not become effective until, say, October of 2017 (the new fiscal year).
By that time, a new president will have been in office for nine months, ample time to get her key appointments in place.
At that point, Ryan would likely say that he cannot bring it to a vote because he does not know who the next president will be. But, that would be the lamest excuse on record for anything. It would institutionalize paralysis, suggesting that no law, about anything, can be passed that survives past a president's four-year term.
The President should call the Speaker's bluff.