Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner has condemned US President Barack Obama’s use of executive powers to force through immigration reform.

The conservative leader said the action sabotages any chance of enacting cross-party reforms and damages the presidency itself.

Mr Obama’s plan means more than 4m illegal immigrants in the US will be allowed to apply for work permits.

But Mr Boehner said it would encourage more people to arrive unlawfully.

“We have a broken immigration system and the American people expect us to work together to fix it,”_ Mr Boehner told reporters on Friday, saying Mr Obama had acted unilaterally “like a king or emperor” and not through a democratic process.