SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — At least it's a start.
Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Tuesday talked a group of his fellow Western governors into letting him draft a proposal on immigration that they'll take a look at early next year.
But no promises were made that any action will ever be taken on the controversial issue. Still, Huntsman said he was pleased with the results of his private luncheon meeting, held jbefore the start of the annual winter session of the Western Governors' Association here.
"We are where I'd hoped we would be at this point. The WGA has never taken up this issue before," Huntsman said. "It does take time and it does take building consensus. That's the way the organization works, but you do have to start someplace."
He had help making his pitch from Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, as well as the support of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who did not attend Tuesday's meeting. The two Democratic governors have gone so far as to declare a state of emergency along the Mexican border to secure funds to fight illegal immigration.
"We're going to see if we can't, over the course of the next few months, reach a consensus among all of us," Napolitano said, describing Tuesday's discussion as only "at the very edges" of the issue. The Arizona governor, who heads the WGA, declined to be specific about what position she'd like to see the governors eventually take — but clearly wants them to do something.
"On immigration, in my opinion, it is so important for our country that we begin having a dialog based on realism and rhetoric and really start grappling with the details of what needs to happen so we have an enforceable immigration law that is enforced," Napolitano said.
The three other governors here — Brian Schweitzer of Montana, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming — have less interest in the issue but agreed to take it on anyway.
"What's in it for me? Not a hell of a lot," Schweitzer said, noting Montana has few undocumented workers. But he said that by banding together, the region's governors could counter the "partisan bickering" in Washington about immigration.
"We'll work together," Schweitzer said.
Rounds, the vice chairman of the WGA, said the governors know from experience "that if we do nothing, Congress will act. . . . WGA certainly has a number of governors in it who really are impacted, and their states are truly impacted on a daily basis by current immigration policies."
The Utah governor committed to pushing his Western counterparts to take a stand on how the nation's immigration policies should be changed after meeting with Mexican President Vicente Fox earlier this year.
Huntsman went to Mexico City to sell a trade, educational and cultural alliance between Utah and Mexico, but Fox and other officials wanted to discuss immigration, so he made a pledge to see what he could get other Western governors to back.
Just what Huntsman would support is something he's not willing to make public yet either. His "white paper" on immigration will deal with protecting the U.S. border with Mexico, guest-worker programs and the process by which immigrants become citizens.
It will be presented at the WGA's next meeting in February — hopefully about the same time Congress is debating the issue. Huntsman believes the Western governors could have a real impact on that debate, especially if they can agree on specifics.
That's a long ways off, though.
"These are the early steps leading up to what we hope is a further sense of direction by the Western governors," Huntsman said of the work his office will put into the proposal.
The WGA meeting ends today, and Huntsman is scheduled to return to Utah early in the morning to shore up support for the Legacy Parkway deal that state lawmakers will consider in special session late this afternoon.
Transportation was also on the WGA agenda. Huntsman moderated a discussion about dealing with growth and gridlock in the West, raising the question of what types of "creative" financing there might be for building roads in the future.
Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation James Burnley said funding for roads is running out. By 2015, a National Chamber of Commerce study forecasts there will be a $1 trillion shortfall — and that's just maintaining the current levels of congestion.
Burnley said one proposal to raise funds is to shift from taxing gasoline sales to taxing actual miles driven. That received a less-than-enthusiastic response from the Western governors, whose constituents typically drive long distances.
"There's got to be a better way," Napolitano said.
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