4. System to track foreigners will have big gaps

In announcing the new security proposal Thursday, Hoeven touted its provision that would hold off most green cards for those who currently here illegally until the federal government has set up a system to track when and whether foreigners who came into the United States on visas have left.

“The electronic entry-exit identification system must be in place at all international airports and seaports in the United States where U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are currently deployed,” Hoeven said.

That leaves out the southern land border the rest of the bill is so focused on — as well as the northern border, raising questions about the point of keeping track of exiting visitors at all.

“If we don’t have the land ports in the mix, then we never know who came into the country, if they left by land,” Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) said Thursday. “The 9/11 Commission says the system will not work. The system will not work.”

This is also an area where Congress has a major credibility gap. Krikorian notes that Congress first mandated such a system back in 1996 and again after 9/11, but it has never come to pass.

“It’s been on the books for 17 years, they still haven’t finished it,” he said.