2 GOVERNORS URGE END TO WARS AGAINST DRUGS

The battles over undocumented immigration and illegal drugs flare hottest
along the U.S.-Mexican border. Now the governors of neighboring border
states are pushing proposals to retreat from both wars.

Arizona Gov. Jane Hull and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson both want to
legalize common, if underground, practices - especially near the border.

Hull wants to legalize some of the millions of illegal border crossings
that take place each year.

She would do so through a guest-worker program that permits increased
numbers of Mexican laborers to cross the border legally for temporary work
in selected industries. Instead of scurrying across the desert under cover
of darkness, the participants could cross legally at a port of entry.

Johnson wants to legalize the sale and consumption of illegal drugs, from
marijuana to heroin. Instead of coming across the border in secret
compartments on trucks or on the backs of smugglers, legalized drugs could
be declared at the port of entry, or grown legally in the United States.

Hull plans to discuss her guest-worker proposal with Mexican President
Ernesto Zedillo on Wednesday during an Arizona delegation's trip to Mexico
City.

``The reality is that no matter how effective border enforcement is,
illegal immigrants will continue to enter the United States to work,'' Hull
told a conference of border governors in Tijuana last month.

``Instead of denying a situation where illegal immigrants are crossing the
borders in the thousands daily, we should embrace a new system that will
channel available labor into necessary sectors in a managed and controlled
fashion,'' says her position paper on the issue.

Johnson is the highest elected official to openly support the sale and
consumption of illegal drugs. He acknowledges using marijuana and cocaine
years ago and thinks it should be legal, although Johnson - now a fitness
freak - recommends against using drugs.

Johnson, too, wants government to intervene as regulators instead of
interdicting as enforcers, he said last week at a Santa Fe press conference.

Rather than risking police lives in a failed drug war, ``let's redirect law
enforcement over to enforcing a new set of laws,'' he said. ``Legalization
is about control. Legalization is about taxation. Legalization is about
regulation.''

While Johnson has signed onto Hull's guest-worker campaign, Hull remains
opposed to drug legalization.

Few public figures have vocally supported both proposals. But supporters of
a guest-worker program and of legalizing drugs use similar-sounding arguments.

Take Douglas Mayor Ray Borane, who was the primary spokesman for a
guest-worker program before Hull took up the issue. He has witnessed the
rapid multiplication of U.S. Border Patrol agents around his hometown and
has concluded this ``militarization'' won't solve the illegal
border-crossing problem.

``They're spending billions and billions of dollars in an effort that is
futile,'' Borane said. ``All we're doing is perpetuating employment for a
federal agency to escort people back to the border.''

In addition, increased border enforcement is leading to vast criminal
organizations that traffic in illegal entrants, Borane said.

``By legalizing it, you take (undocumented people) out of that darkness,''
Borane said. Under the guest-worker proposal, he said, such migration ``is
well-organized, it's controlled, and we only take so many at a time.''

While Borane supports a guest-worker program, he opposes legalizing drugs
and favors continued drug interdiction in the Douglas area.

Another borderland native, Oscar Martinez, blames the drug war for the
militarization of life on the U.S.-Mexican line. Martinez, a University of
Arizona history professor who specializes in the border region, chastised
the federal government for spending ``billions and billions and billions of
dollars for a war that we are losing.''

Not only have we lost the war, he said, but we have spawned criminal
organizations based along the border.

Legalization ``would eliminate the need for the cartels. It would destroy
the criminal system that supports the industry,'' Martinez said.

While supporting Johnson's drug-legalization stance, Martinez is dubious
about a new guest-worker program. It would probably not have enough
safeguards to protect workers from exploitation, he said.

While both Johnson's and Hull's proposals are similar in trying to legalize
what are already common practices and regulate them through government, the
ideas have some strong distinctions.

* Hull's expanded guest-worker proposal is more specific and more likely to
make it onto the floor of Congress. Although he speaks in favor of drug
legalization, Johnson has left it up to other politicians to turn the idea
into legislation.

* Hull's proposal appeals to some powerful political interests, especially
big-business groups. Johnson's proposal is, in his own words, politically
``zippo.'' Most of the supporters of drug legalization remain ``in the
closet,'' he said.

* The battle against illegal immigration has focused primarily on the
Mexican border and remains highly visible there. Drug warriors also
concentrate on the border, but every state and city has its own drug battle.

Hull's and Johnson's proposals have gained increasing media attention.
While Hull is taking her idea to the Mexican capital, Johnson has taken his
to the head drug warrior, retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of the
Office of National Drug Control Policy.

After initially lambasting Johnson's proposal, he said at the same Santa Fe
press conference, ``I'm here to say this conversation should continue to
take place.''

[Sidebar:]

THE GOVERNORS' PLANS

Both Arizona Gov. Jane Hull's guest-worker proposal and New Mexico Gov.
Gary Johnson's drug-legalization proposal would have to be introduced as
bills in Congress. While Hull is actively suggesting details of a
guest-worker bill, Johnson's proposal is more general.

Hull would:

* Establish Arizona as the site of a pilot project.

* Allow an as-yet-undetermined number of foreign laborers into the country
on a temporary basis.

* Send them to jobs in specific industries, including agriculture,
hospitality (restaurants and hotels) and service (construction and custodial).

* Accelerate the issuance of these visas, which already exist for a small
number of agricultural jobs.

* Increase penalties on employers who use undocumented employees.

Johnson would:

* Legalize the use of marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs.

* Establish a minimum age of perhaps 21 to consume them.

* Create a government structure to regulate and tax the sale of these drugs.

* Expand the availability of drug-abuse treatment programs that work for
those who want to participate.

* Allow employers to discriminate against drug users.