Excerpted (most of the article deals with dope, I left that out since we've got too much emphasis on dope here already). PLAYBOY: As governor of a border state, what is your view of the immigration issue?
JOHNSON: I don't think Easterners recognize that the Hispanics who immigrate are great people, great citizens. They care about their families like other Americans care about their families. They're living in poverty in Mexico and can come to the United States and do a lot better.
PLAYBOY: By--according to some--taking away jobs.
JOHNSON: They work the lowest-paying jobs, which is a huge step up from where they come from. And they are taking jobs that other Americans don't necessarily want. They're hardworking people who are taking jobs that others don't want. That's the reality.
PLAYBOY: Would you open the borders and make it easier to immigrate legally?
JOHNSON: My vision of the border with Mexico is that a truck from the United States going into Mexico and a truck coming from Mexico into the United States will pass each other at the border going 60 miles an hour. Yes, we should have open borders. It will help enormously with the drug issue, too, by the way. One of the huge raps on Mexico is that it is a drug supplier, that it's the drug corridor. But there wouldn't be drugs coming in illegally from Mexico if there weren't the demand in the United States. We have a militarized border with Mexico, and it's a shame. It doesn't work very well, either. Mexican mules get paid a king's ransom to carry marijuana or cocaine across the border, but they are just mules. If they get caught, they're the ones who get locked up, not the drug lords. One out of eight gets caught. Whoever's paying them south of the border knows that equation and understands the risk.
PLAYBOY: In California, there was a backlash against illegal immigrants. Voters passed a proposition that would have denied them medical and other services.
JOHNSON: It wouldn't be a problem if they were legal, so the process to make them legal should be easier.
PLAYBOY: Many Americans fear the flood of immigrants that would follow.
JOHNSON: Again, they would come over and take jobs that we don't want. They would become taxpayers. They're just pursuing dreams---the same dreams we all have. They work hard. What's wrong with that?
PLAYBOY: Is that behind your support of Nafta?
JOHNSON: Yes. Nafta has benefited New Mexico. With each passing day, it's a bigger boom for New Mexico as a border state.
PLAYBOY: Do you disagree that Nafta has caused the "sucking sound" Ross Perot warned of--the sound of U.S. jobs being sucked into Mexico?
JOHNSON: Again, my opinion is that the jobs we're talking about are those we generally don't want. What jobs are we saving?
PLAYBOY: Manufacturing jobs.
JOHNSON: There is a shifting, and some companies have relocated to Mexico. But we've benefited far more than we have lost. Also, it's still settling. Intel has a new semiconductor manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, one of the most sophisticated plants on the planet. It is in the U.S. because the workers are qualified and efficient here. If we're not competitive, we had better get competitive. We're moving toward a global economy whether we like it or not.
Poster Comment:
Does not seem to be a dimes worth of difference between the Libertarian candidate and RINO's like Arbusto, JEB, Graham and McCain.