WASHINGTON — After meeting with President Bush and Cabinet secretaries yesterday, Hawai'i Gov. Linda Lingle said she valued the wide-ranging policy discussions on immigration, transportation and other issues important to the state.

"I think it's very important to be here to hear how others are viewing some of the issues that we are going to deal with or are dealing with," said Lingle, who is in Washington to attend the National Governors Association three-day winter meeting.

Lingle and the other governors met with Bush and the secretaries at the White House on the last day of the governors' conference for the discussions.

Lingle said she and Bush were in agreement on the need for an immigration policy that would include a guest-worker program.

"They can have jobs that Americans are not going to do at those prices, whether it's picking apples in Washington, plucking chickens someplace in the South or working in meatpacking plants — all these things that are essential to our economy," Lingle said.

Lingle also said the idea that the country was going to force 12 million illegal immigrants to leave was "ridiculous."

"We're not going to do it, and it would be devastating to many businesses if we did do it," she said.

The children of illegal immigrants born in the United States have to be able to stay as well, she said.

"Our country was built on immigration, and while I don't want to encourage illegal immigration because it's not fair to people who wait, I think we have to deal with the realities before us," she said. "In a state like Hawai'i, we have a strong feeling about family and reunification."

Another topic was the ability of revenue from gasoline taxes to keep up with the need for transportation construction and repairs, given the push for cars to meet higher fuel-efficiency standards or use alternative fuels, she said.

Higher fuel efficiency means less tax money for road construction with the same number of miles being driven, she said.

"The president spoke about the relationship between our dependence on oil and the gasoline that is refined from it, and the revenues we're going to need for our transportation systems," she said. "Governors in Indiana, Texas, New York and New Jersey are all moving in the direction of more 'congestion pricing' and tolls."

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.