White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Wednesday President Barack Obama will act unilaterally on immigration, despite new speculation that Republican lawmakers may shut down the government to block executive actions Obama plans to announce by the end of the summer. “It certainly was a shame when Republicans engaged in a strategy to shut down the government over the Affordable Care Act,” Earnest said. “We would hope that Republicans wouldn’t do the same thing again … over a common sense, bipartisan effort to try to mitigate at least some of the worst problems that are caused by our broken immigration system.” To avoid a shutdown, lawmakers must pass legislation to fund the government before the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year.