For most Republican candidates, a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border is both a performance and an education. Donning baseball caps with campaign slogans, they wish to be seen as leaders who will roll up their sleeves and solve problems: in this case, drug smuggling, undocumented immigration, and border control. For many candidates their recent visits are among the first times they’ve ever seen the border up close, accumulating first-hand knowledge of a place, its people, and the challenges they face.