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 "I don’t mean people are packages, so let’s not be ridiculous,”
the New Jersey governor told an interviewer on Fox News Sunday who
pointed out that foreigners do not have labels on their wrists.
"This is once again a situation where the private sector laps us in
the government with the use of technology," Christie said. "We
should bring in the folks from FedEx to use the technology to be
able to do it. There’s nothing wrong with that."
Christie said on Saturday that if he wins the November 2016
presidential election, he would use a FedEx-like system to make sure
visitors who enter the United States legally on visas depart the
country when their time is up. He said that 40 percent of illegal
immigrants with visas overstay their visits.
Package delivery companies like FedEx and United Parcel Service Inc
use bar-coded labels to record the movements of parcels through
sorting facilities to delivery. Christie did not explain how his
approach would work, but said he wants visa holders to be tracked
from the moment they enter the United States and then notified when
it is time for them to leave.Experts say visa overstays pose a
growing problem, with some research showing that over half of recent
illegal immigrants entered the United States legally.
But the solution could be more a question of political priorities
than new technology systems. Some say the federal government could
address the problem by sending visa holders text messages when their
stay is ending and by recording their departures from all ports and
border crossings.
"There've been very spotty, half-hearted efforts at doing exit
tracking," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for
Immigration Studies, a nonpartisan group that favors a tighter
policy.
Christie, who is running well behind among the 17 contenders in the
Republican White House race, sought to draw a distinction between
his proposal and what he called Republican front-runner Donald
Trump's "simplistic" idea on how to deal with an estimated 11
million illegal immigrants in the United States.
Trump, who has a 21-point lead over his closest Republican rival,
Mike Huckabee, according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey, has said he
would deport undocumented immigrants and build a wall between the
United States and Mexico.
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"I've put forward a much more detailed proposal than that," said
Christie, adding that the presidential race was "not only about
personality. It's also about ideas. And it's about who can get it
done."
Christie has said he would ask FedEx Chief Executive Officer Fred
Smith to devise the tracking system. A FedEx spokeswoman on Sunday
declined to comment on his remarks.
But immigrant advocates say the New Jersey governor said little to
separate himself from Trump.
"Basically, he put a stamp on everyone's wrist without providing a
solution for the people who are here," said Dawn Le, spokeswoman for
the Alliance for Citizenship, a nonprofit group that wants a pathway
to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
"How is his proposal any different than Donald Trump's? Would he
deport all 11 million people? He didn't say."
Trump's railing about illegal immigrants has prompted other
Republicans to talk tougher on immigration but has also rattled
Republican Party leaders who are desperate to attract support from
Latino voters who have Democrat Hillary Clinton's pledge to seek
citizenship for illegal immigrants if elected in 2016.
(Additional reporting by Alina Selyukh and Eric Beech in Washington
and Nick Carey in Chicago; Editing by Clelia Oziel and Lisa
Shumaker)
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reserved.]
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