I previously blogged that a legitimate (albeit disingenuous) objection from Republicans to passing immigration reform is that they do not trust President Obama to faithfully execute it. The President has proven himself to routinely flout the laws Congress passes, and implement broad policies far beyond the scope of any executive precedent.

Recognizing this, Chuck Schumer (no fool) proposed delaying the implementation of any immigration reform till after Obama leaves office in 2017!

There’s 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. Now I think the rap against him, that he won’t enforce the law, is false. 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. You’d simply move the date back from December 31 2011 to December 31 2017 for the deadline for when people could get legalization or citizenship so we could go after the new people who come in later, and it would solve the problem.

Schumer’s spox elaborated:

“They’ve already established they don’t trust the president to enforce the law on immigration, but he’s going to be the president through 2016 whether we pass a law or not,” Matt House, a spokesman for Schumer, said. “If they believe in immigration reform, why not get things moving for 2017?”

What a fascinating concession. That the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate would acknowledge (under protest) that this concern is valid enough to not allow President Obama to enforce it. This is what abuse of executive power breeds–distrust. Such distrust that both houses of Congress may come to a compromise built on that very distrust. 

In all seriousness though, would Republicans trust Hillary Clinton anymore than Obama? That that is unless President Obama decides to ignore the 22nd amendment–kidding, kidding!