In an editorial for CNN, Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson tore into Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico. “As a white guy who served two terms as Governor of New Mexico, a border state with by far the largest percentage of Latino residents in the nation,” Johnson wrote, “I really wish the nativists and panderers alike would just take a break, admit what the real problems are, and let common sense prevail.” He went on:
“Rounding up more than 11 million people — a population larger than all but the 7 largest states in the union — is a ludicrous notion to begin with. Everyone knows it, including Donald Trump. It was a lie cloaked in a promise. Even if it were possible, the idea of federal authorities rounding up millions of people and loading them on buses is an image America could never stomach.”
After making an appeal to common sense — even encouraging Americans to think about what they would do if the wait to get, for example, a drivers license was as long and cumbersome as becoming a U.S. citizen (“how many of us would throw up our hands, get behind the wheel, and take our chances driving without one?”) — Johnson introduced in his own policy proposal. “The way to stop illegal entry is to spend our resources making legal entry efficient for people coming here for the right reasons,” he wrote. “Instead, our politicians want to spend those resources building walls, militarizing the border and ‘stepping up enforcement.'”
Johnson ended his argument by imploring readers to embrace the American experiment. “We really are a nation of immigrants, and we’ve become the greatest nation on Earth without big walls and nativism,” he said.
(Via CNN)
