By Nicole Duran • 11/10/15 2:38 PM

A White House spokesman said Tuesday that President Obama would agree to take back his controversial executive actions on immigration if Congress agreed to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Spokesman Josh Earnest made that offer on the same day the administration said it would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to legitimize Obama's immigration actions after two federal courts said they can't be implemented until a lawsuit against them is completed.

"The president would happily rescind his executive orders so that the congressionally passed legislation would be the law of the land," Earnest said. "I think that highlights how unwise Republicans in Congress have been in trying to set a policy that ... would be good for the country, would be good for our economy and be good for our national security."

Monday evening, a federal Appeals Court upheld an injunction against Obama's orders preventing the deportations of millions of young adults who were illegally brought to the U.S. as children and their parents. Those orders would also allow them to work in the United States.

Republicans have said Obama's initiative would also pare back law enforcement against illegal immigrants. But Earnest said they are aimed at giving authorities the discretion on when to enforce immigration law.

"We obviously continue to believe strongly in the legal power of the arguments that we've been making for nearly a year now, about the importance of giving our law enforcement officials the discretion to implement our immigration laws, in a way that focuses on those who pose a genuine threat to our national security or to our communities," Earnest said.

Earnest said GOP opposition diffuses scarce immigration enforcement dollars and tears families apart.

"And that is clearly not in the best interest of our national security; it's not in the best interest of public safety; it's also not consistent with the values of this country," he said. "The broken immigration system that we have right now is the closest thing that we have to amnesty."

Earnest also argued that the administration is on solid legal footing.

"The legal underpinnings of the DACA law have not been called into question," Earnest said, using the acronym for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. "That's why the president chose to act using executive authority, consistent with the way that every president dating back to the '50s has used that authority."

"We're confident in the power of legal arguments, and that's why I think you've seen the Department of Justice make such a quick decision to move this on up the line to the Supreme Court," he added.

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