The president's message: The border is secure, let's talk reform.

Speaking Tuesday in El Paso, Texas, Obama said he exceeded demands from Republican lawmakers to secure the border and cautioned them against demanding more on the issue by moving the goalposts.

Where were those goalposts in the first place? It depends on whom you ask.

Introducing his framework for immigration reform Tuesday, the president said increasing the number of border patrol agents to more than 20,000, completing all but 3 of the 652 miles of border fence planned and providing air surveillance capabilities along the southwestern border went "above and beyond" the marker Republican lawmakers set.

Some see it differently.

"The president implying, 'We've done enough, the border is secure,' does not make it so," said U.S. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Border security is the pivot point for both sides of the immigration reform debate but how either side defines it unclear, said Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Failure for both sides to agree on a definition adds to public perception of a broken system, Meissner said.

That perception is already strong for many border town residents.

"The border wall, it's just a waste of money," said Ana Ruiz, 45, from Brownsville, Texas. "They build a wall 20 feet tall. There's a joke that there is a store on the other side selling ladders for 22."

Using troops to keep drugs and violence from crossing the river into Brownsville would secure the border, Ruiz said.

The White House sent 1,200 National Guard troops to the border last year. U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., want that number increased to 6,000.

The pair introduced the Border Security Enforcement Act of 2011 last month, which calls for the increase in National Guard troops.

They also asked for more Border Patrol agents, funding for state and local agencies that help with border enforcement and enhanced aerial surveillance capabilities. Implementing their plan would secure the border, the Arizona senators said in a statement Tuesday.

For Ruiz's mother, Concepcion, 73, a secure border is one that keeps the violence in Mexico from spilling over the border.

While Ana and Concepcion Ruiz define border security in terms of drugs and violence, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security until recently defined it as "operational control."

Implemented in 2004, operational control referred to Border Patrol agents' ability to "detect, identify, classify and then respond to and resolve illegal entries," said Border Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Michael Fisher in testimony to a House committee in February.

Using that definition, 44 percent of the U.S.-Mexican border is considered secure, despite what the agency called "historic levels" of manpower and technological resources and a price tag of nearly $12 billion last year.

Homeland Security wants to swap out operational control for a new definition that marries security and quality of life along the border.

"The Border Patrol is currently taking steps to replace this outdated measure with performance metrics that more accurately depict the state of border security," Fisher said at the February hearing.

The new index will be a comprehensive, rather than an anecdotal measure, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said at a Senate hearing last week.

Critics of the change said the agency is trying to improve its statistics by redefining the goal.

"Just because it doesn't look good to say we only have one-half of our sectors under operational control is not a good reason to change the definition," Asa Hutchinson, the department's former undersecretary for border and transportation security, said at a Senate hearing last month.

Hutchinson offered his own definition for border security.

"The capability to detect border intrusions and be able to respond effectively to those," Hutchinson said. "Detection…that's where we have to use technology."

Whatever the new definition of border security, Meissner said it needs to be attainable.

"Zero tolerance is unrealistic," she said.

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