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Immigration rights advocates are pushing President Obama to brush aside calls from fellow Democrats to delay executive action on deportations until after the election.

"I say to the Democrats: Stand aside," Rep. Luis Gutirrez (D-Ill.) said during a press call Wednesday. "Let the president make a decision; let him announce it; and stop this stopping the progress of our community towards justice."

Other advocates piled on.

"Right now, Republicans own letting the country down on delivering a solution," she added. "If some Democrats step in to prevent executive action, then the Democrats will co-own that inaction and the devastation that continues to be wreaked on our communities."

In June, Obama warned GOP leaders that, in the absence of congressional action on immigration reform, he would consider unilateral policy changes recommended by top administration officials "before the end of the summer" and adopt them "without further delay."

But a number of Senate Democrats facing tough reelection bids have pushed back against that plan, wary that new executive actions will energize GOP voters who oppose immigration reform and feel Obama is prone to abusing his powers.

"The best thing would be for Congress to act," Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), who's battling for a fourth term, said last month.

The White House in recent days has walked back Obamas "end of the summer promise, insisting there is no timetable for potential executive action.

"It's hard for me to draw any clear conclusions about what the president's timing will be," White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Tuesday. "There is the chance that it could be before the end of the summer. There is the chance that it could be after the summer."

Gutirrez and other immigrant rights advocates say any delay would be a mistake both politically and in policy terms. They noted that Democrats benefitted at the polls in 2012, just a few months after Obama adopted the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which halted deportations for some illegal immigrants brought to the country as kids and predicted a similar outcome if Obama acted again ahead of this year's midterms.

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Immigration advocates to Obama: Dont let Dems stand in the way