In related news, Chuck Schumer is an idiot.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. immigration reforms could be passed now but enacted after President Barack Obama leaves office if Republicans fear he will not enforce the new rules, a key Democratic senator said Sunday, offering a way to achieve one of Obama’s main policy objectives.

Last week, Republican House Speaker John Boehner expressed doubts Obama’s long-sought overhaul of immigration laws would be passed this year and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said there was little interest in the issue with congressional elections looming in November.

Boehner said one of the biggest obstacles to immigration reform in the House was a concern that Obama would not fully enforce any laws that might be approved. As evidence of that, he accused him of changing “the healthcare law on a whim, whenever he likes”.

On NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and one of chief architects of the Senate’s bipartisan immigration plan, offered what he said was a simple solution.

“Let’s enact the law this year but simply not let it actually start until 2017 after President Obama’s term is over,” he said.

HT: BikerHoop