Here's what House GOP could do when Obama issues his immigration order

Republicans have already made clear their willingness to block the upcoming attorney general nomination as a consequence of executive action. And Scalise said a new piece of legislation is already written, but not introduced, that would allow lawmakers to take the president to court.

But there’s a new Congress convening in January, and many Republican members say that’s when comprehensive immigration-reform legislation should be given another shot.

“From ’08 to 2010, [Obama] had the House, the Senate, and the White House,” Gowdy said to several reporters on Capitol Hill on Friday, “and he didn’t do a damn thing about immigration reform, so if he could take two years to do nothing, I would think he could give this new Congress maybe three months? Six months?”

Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a power player in the House Republican immigration negotiations, said any executive action would throw a “hand grenade” into deal-making.