"Nativism is not an American value," two-term New Mexico governor Gary Johnson said. | Getty Gary Johnson: 'Nativism is not an American value'

Nativism is not an American value, Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson declared Thursday, delivering a pointed rebuke to Donald Trump without mentioning his name while calling on an end to immigration quotas symptomatic of a broken system.

“The overwhelming cause of illegal immigration and visa overstays is the fact that our legal immigration process simply doesn’t work, and that we impose absurd caps on various work visas,” Johnson said in a statement on Thursday with his remarks to the annual National Association of Latino Elected Officials conference in Washington. “Let the market, not bureaucrats and special interests, determine how many workers we allow into the country.”


The United States' borders "must be controlled," he said, but such control "begins with knowing who is entering the country and why – not building another ‘Great Wall’ or banning immigrants on the basis of ethnicity or religion."

"Nativism is not an American value," the two-term New Mexico governor added, noting that the "overwhelming majority" of undocumented immigrants are “already here” or moving to the United States “looking to work, unify families and find a better life, and were blocked from entry by system that doesn’t work."

He added, "Fix that system, and our border enforcement resources can then be devoted to that small fraction who are here to do us harm or engage in criminal activity."