Are U.S. Borders Secure? Why We Don’t Know, and How to Find Out

Edward Alden, Bernard L. Schwartz Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Bryan Roberts, former assistant director of borders and immigration at the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation at the Department of Homeland Security have an article in Foreign Affairs that  argues that one reason that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has been unable to persuade Congress and the American public that the border is more secure is that the Department fails to collect and publicize the data it needs to make its case:

“To move the debate on border security beyond politically driven speculation to a more serious consideration of how much enforcement is needed, and at what cost, the Obama administration must develop effective ways to measure progress on border security and then inform Congress and the public regularly about it.”

KJ