A lot of Republicans, and some Democrats, were stunned last month when the Department of Homeland Security admitted that its promised measure of border security, the Border Condition Index, or BCI, is not only not ready to go into operation but will not measure border security when it is finally finished.  The Obama administration had told Congress that the BCI would replace various measurements of “operational control” of the border, which had been used in the past to assess border security.  Now, the government is left with no accepted measure of security along the 1,969-mile U.S. border with Mexico.

The Department’s admission dealt a blow to immigration reform efforts, which depend on provable border security improvements before any path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally.  If the Obama administration has no way to measure border security, and reform is contingent on measurable security results, then how can reform go forward?