GOVERNORS SEEK WORKABLE ANSWERS TO IMMIGRANT WOES

TIJUANA, Mexico -- Two of the thorniest issues in U.S.-Mexico relations --
immigration and drugs -- took center stage in surprising new forms Friday
as governors from states along both sides of the border wound up their
yearly get-together.

Arizona Gov. Jane Dee Hull won the support of her counterparts in Texas and
New Mexico for a proposal to create a guest-worker program that would
enable more immigrants to work legally in the United States on a temporary
basis.

California Gov. Gray Davis declined to join in calling on the federal
government to expand a little-used program under which agricultural workers
are issued temporary visas to enter the United States.

An aide said Davis, the only Democrat among the four Southwest border
governors, received the Hull proposal Thursday afternoon. A letter
supporting the idea bore the names of Hull, New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson
and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who did not attend the conference.

"The governor is not interested in signing it at this point," Davis aide
Michael Flores said. Davis helped kick off the summit Thursday but returned
to California that night to tend to state business.

Hull said federal legislation addressing the guest-worker issue in general
terms would be offered in the next two weeks by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison,
R-Texas, and Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz. "We're not talking specifics," Hull
said. "We're talking concepts. There are a lot of unanswered questions."

Hull said a new guest-worker program could help fill vacant jobs in states
such as Arizona, which has become the nation's hot spot for illegal
immigrants skirting tougher border controls elsewhere.

"Current border policy isn't working," Hull said in remarks closing the
two-day session. "Something must be done to acknowledge the fact that U.S.
businesses need workers. Something must be done to acknowledge the fact
that workers follow work."

The idea of a new guest-worker system is controversial, evoking memories of
the discredited large-scale "bracero" program halted in the 1964 after
widespread abuses of migrant workers.

Hull's counterparts from Mexico voiced support for her suggestion.

"We have the workforce here and they have the need for workers there," said
Patricio Martinez Garcia, governor of Chihuahua.

Johnson raised eyebrows by using his closing remarks to lambaste the U.S.
war on drugs as "a miserable failure." He proposed studying legalization of
drugs an alternative to soaring prison populations and law enforcement costs.

Johnson, a conservative Republican, has acknowledged past use of marijuana
and cocaine in the 1970's, but said he is opposed to drug use.

"We are locking up tens of thousands of people in the United States on drug
crimes and we have to look for alternatives," he said.