If Congress will not act on immigration reforms, U.S. President Barack Obama told GOP leaders at the Friday White House lunch that he would act on his own by the end of 2014. Obama is pushing for congressional approval of a legislation that would ease deportations and warned them that his patience is running out.

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However, the push for cooperation after the midterm elections in which the Republicans got majority of the seats was stymied by the issue of immigration reforms as the Republicans sought more time to work on that legislation.

At the same time they told Obama not to initiate unilateral action, pointing out that the president did not heed the results of the midterm elections with the majority win by the GOP. Texas Sen. John Cornyn pointed that rather show that he is contrite based on this week's election results, Obama apparently remains "unmoved and even defiant."

Cornyn, in a statement after the lunch, said, "Unfortunately the president's promise to unilaterally go around Congress ignores the message voters send on Election Day ... It is my sincere hope that he will reverse course and work with us - not around us - to secure the border and achieve real reforms to our immigration system."

Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader, compared Obama's immovable stand on immigration reforms as similar to someone "waving a red flag in front of a bull," while Cornyn commented, quoted by Leader Telegram, "I don't know why he would want to sabotage his last two years as president by doing something this provocative."

Obama and McConnell were previously hopeful of finding some common ground despite the ideological differences of the two parties as they pointed to other vital issues such as patent laws and tax reforms.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest acknowledged that the two parties would nevertheless have many things to disagree about, but he urged congressional leaders, quoted by Fox News, "If there's an opportunity for us to find some common ground, let's make sure that out differences don't get in the way of us being able to make some progress for the American people."

The White House also identified three areas that the president and the GOP could cooperate. These are an emergency fund to battle the outbreak of Ebola, the federal budget approval and speedy action on spending to triumph over the extremist militant group Islamic State.

As a parting gift, the White House gave the Republican leaders brown bags with a six-pack beer that was brewed in the White House.

TagsGOP, Immigration Reform, Barack Obama, midterm elections