House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH,8) told reporters Wednesday that House Republicans "have no intention of ever going to conference" on the bipartisan immigration bill the Senate passed in June. 

The speaker's comments come a few days after House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA,23) told a group of activists in his state that immigration reform would not see a floor vote before the year ends.

Last month, House Democrats introduced a comprehensive immigration reform bill that mirrors the Senate measure and would create a pathway to citizenship for America’s more than 11 million undocumented immigrants.

But Boehner on Wednesday reiterated that he wants to see the House take up immigration reform in a piecemeal fashion, rather than one large, comprehensive measure.

“Just understand something: I want us to deal with this issue,” he said. “But I want to deal with it in a common-sense, step-by-step way.”

Immigration reform supporters had hoped that passing immigration measures "step-by-step" in the House would eventually lead to possible negotiations over the Senate's measure.

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL,25), who has been working to craft immigration bills in the House, called on Boehner to rethink his position about an immigration reform conference.

“I urge Speaker Boehner to remain open to any options that allow us to solve this crucial issue,” he said, according to Politico. “It has been said time and time again that our immigration system is broken, and we must come together to find a sensible solution to fix it.”

The Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights issued the following statement in response to Boehner's comments:

One year ago, right after immigrant voters swung heavily toward the Democrats in the November 2012 elections, Speaker Boehner pledged to move forward on immigration reform. The Speaker and his House leadership colleagues have had a year to pass legislation. The Senate has already passed a bill that includes a path to citizenship. A majority of House members support a comprehensive bill. Yet Speaker Boehner cannot get the job done, and has now given up for the year.

Every day that Speaker Boehner wrings his hands in failure, 1,100 more immigrants get deported, leaving behind US citizen spouses and children in broken families. Immigrant voters will remember the damage that Speaker Boehner’s lack of leadership has inflicted on their families and communities. Instead of learning the lessons of the 2012 elections, Speaker Boehner and his GOP colleagues will need to be taught again that their failure has a price.

If Republicans keep failing to fix our immigration system, they will continue to alienate the Latino, Asian, and immigrant communities who voted in record numbers in November 2012. The party lost four congressional seats, including three freshmen and 14-year incumbent U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert. They narrowly avoided losing the seat currently held by Congressman Rodney Davis, who won by only 1,002 votes (0.34%) in a district with 10,221 registered Latino, Asian and Middle Eastern voters. As immigrants continue to move into the suburbs, including DuPage, Lake and McHenry Counties, a lack of leadership on immigration by Republicans will hurt them in future Novembers.