Chris Christie has defended his call to see immigrants tracked in a similar manner to FedEx packages. The Republican presidential nominee candidate has been criticized for his proposal; however, he says the attacks on his proposal are “ridiculous” and a deliberate distortion of his intention.
“I don’t mean people are packages, so let’s not be ridiculous,” the Governor of New Jersey declared on Fox News Sunday when an interviewer noted that immigrants do not have labels attached to their wrists. “This is once again a situation where the private sector laps us in the government with the use of technology. We should bring in the folks from FedEx to use the technology to be able to do it. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
On Saturday Christie declared that if he were to win the White House next year, he would make use of a FedEx-style system to track those who came to the country on US visas to prevent them overstaying when their visas expire, claiming that 40% of all undocumented immigrants have done just this. FedEx and other package delivery firms make use of bar-coded labels to keep track of parcel movements until delivery.
Those who overstay US visas are a growing problem, according to experts. Christie, who is not one of the most popular of the 17 would-be Republican presidential candidates, has given no details about precisely how his plan would work.