Will goes on to note that it's odd that Romney had a harsher stance on immigration as a Massachusetts governor than border staters like Bush, Perry, and McCain.
Citing his own experience as a border governor, George W. Bush said that the border needed to be secured but also that a broken immigration system had to be made "more compassionate and more humane".
Under the Ecuadorean Constitution, that would allow him to replace the civilian governors of border provinces with military officers, as has been suggested, and suspend some civil liberties.
Mr. Fox said he rejected "forcefully" the statements by the Bush administration and governors of border states, contending that they had unfairly depicted Mexico as a safe haven for organized crime, though his government has arrested more leading drug traffickers and dismantled more cartels than any of its predecessors.
Katherine Q. Seelye (NYT) THE REPUBLICANS BUSH HONING FOREIGN POLICY SKILLS -- Gov. George W. Bush of Texas, ever eager to burnish his foreign policy credentials in the presidential campaign, plans to attend a conference of American and Mexican governors from border states next month in Sacramento.
Mr. Perry, who is the governor of a border state, called for "boots on the ground".
As governor of a border state, Ms. Napolitano knows the landscape intimately.
Tomás Yarrington, a former governor of the border state of Tamaulipas, is accused of taking bribes from drug traffickers.
And he repeatedly emphasizes that he has found a philosophical soul mate in President Bush, who is the former governor of a border state.
ACCORDING to many of the leading Republican presidential candidates, including my governor, Rick Perry, the border between Texas and Mexico is among the most dangerous in the world.
