Immigration Reform 2014: Schumer Compromise Plan ‘Entirely Impractical’, Says Boehner’s Office

The current impasse on immigration reform, according to Republicans, comes down to this: they don’t trust that following the passage of a bill which extends legal status to undocumented immigrants and requires that the Department of Homeland Security achieve certain metrics on cross-border traffic, President Barack Obama wouldn’t – by executive action or otherwise – keep the DHS from doing that, while the newly “legalized” immigrants would see their status unaffected. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), a key Democratic member of the Senate “Gang of Eight”, thinks he’s got a solution.

In an appearance on “Meet the Press” this weekend, Schumer suggested Congress could pass a law which would go into effect only after Obama left office. "I think the rap against him that he actually won’t enforce the law is false,” he said. “He's deported more people than any other president. But you could actually have the law start in 2017 without doing much violence to it." The suggestion comes days after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who had looked ready to push an immigration overhaul this year, said he doubted the idea would garner enough support in his party.

But the Washington Post reports that soon after Schumer proposed the solution, a spokesman from the office of Speaker Boehner rejected it. "The suggestion is entirely impractical, since it would totally eliminate the President's incentive to enforce immigration law for the remainder of his term," said spokesman Michael Steel. Business Insider reports that a Senate Democratic leadership aide told the site that Schumer’s suggestion might’ve been more a “rhetorical play” than a real proposal, as other Democrats have recently dismissed Republicans’ objections as flimsy.