The Republicans running for president have been taking their discussion about immigration to some rather esoteric places. Donald Trump has led the way, calling for an end to birthright citizenship and railing against "anchor babies." Other candidates have followed his lead, meaning that the GOP's immigration debate now centers on a murky legal debate about a 147-year-old constitutional amendment.
Enter Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor has been struggling to make his mark on the race, but his immigration comments at a New Hampshire town hall on Saturday definitely got noticed.
Here's a partial transcript from the Washington Post:
At any moment, FedEx can tell you where that package is. It’s on the truck. It’s at the station. It’s on the airplane. Yet we let people come to this country with visas, and the minute they come in, we lose track of them. So here’s what I’m going to do as president: I’m going to ask Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, to come work for the government for three months, just come for three months to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and show these people.
You can watch video of Christie's comments below:
Setting aside the fact that Chris Christie is literally pledging to equate human beings with pieces of mail, his policy proposal raises some immediate questions. We usually do not treat people in the same way as we do packages because you would have to insert some sort of chip or barcode into people if you really wanted to see that they had just landed at the warehouse in Queens, or whatever, and most people would prefer not to be tagged like an envelope or an endangered bird. Is Christie proposing that everyone who comes to the United States with a visa has a chip implanted in their neck?
Christie did not give any further insights into his proposal, and, since he's currently at 11th place in the polls, it's quite possible he won't have too many more chances to explain.