To hear Sen. Charles Schumer tell it, lawmakers crafting an immigration reform bill will focus on two big tasks. “First, defining metrics that demonstrate that the border is secure,” the New York Democrat explained at a Jan. 31 news conference. “Second, defining exactly what the path to citizenship looks like and how it proceeds.”

For Schumer and some Senate colleagues, that is the short version of immigration reform: First, border security, and second, a path to citizenship.