http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/03/03/US-Mexico-border-an-obstacle-to-immigration-reform
Immigration reform is one of President Barack Obama’s priorities for his second term, and for a wide-reaching package to pass, lawmakers need to be convinced that the border with Mexico is secure.
But that is no easy sell. Apprehensions of undocumented aliens at the frontier have dropped 50 percent since 2008, going to 365,000 people last year, which the Obama administration cites as evidence that border security measures work. And deportations of aliens without residency permits, particularly those with criminal records — a key government goal — stand at about 400,000 a year.
But the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), dampened the government’s optimism last week.
A report submitted to the House of Representatives said the number of apprehensions at the US-Mexico border “provides some useful information but does not position the department to be able to report on how effective its efforts are at securing the border.”
“The Border Patrol is in the process of developing goals and measures; however, it has not yet set target timeframes and milestones for completing its efforts,” it added.
Marc Rosenblum, an immigration policy expert with the Congressional Research Service, said that “the size and diversity of the US border mean that no single, quantitative, off-the-shelf indicator accurately and reliably provides a metric or a ‘score’ for border enforcement.”