Chris Christie defends Donald Trump’s immigration policy as ‘completely consistent’
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says that the core of Donald Trump’s immigration policy has been consistent — kicking criminals out of the country and denying amnesty to undocumented immigrants.
The onetime Trump rival who is now the chairman of the Republican presidential nominee’s transition team defended Trump’s softening of his immigration policy during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning.
In a conversation with journalist Martha Raddatz, Christie highlighted that Trump has said no undocumented immigrants will be eligible for citizenship unless they leave the United States and reenter through legal channels.
“The way to look at it is that this is a guy who’s been very consistent on no amnesty, no legalization, for folks who have been coming to the country illegally,” Christie said. “And that’s always been the underpinning of his policy, along with the building of the wall on the United States-Mexican border. And those things have remained completely consistent.”
Raddatz asked if the softening of Trump’s immigration policy will turn off some of his early supporters who liked the idea of using a deportation force to round up all of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants and make them leave the nation altogether.
Christie said that Trump’s primary supporters will stick with the nominee during the general election because Trump’s immigration policy stands in stark contrast with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s.
“Hillary Clinton has a 100-day amnesty plan, where everybody here, no matter whether you’ve been a criminal or not, no matter how you got here or not, is going to wind up becoming American citizens under Hillary Clinton’s plan,” Christie said. “And I think when voters look at that, they’re going to say that’s not what we want to have happen in this country.”
Raddatz brought up former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s comments to a New Jersey publication that Trump softened his immigration policy in part because of Christie.
The New Jersey governor said that throughout his political career — running for president once, running for governor twice and serving as governor for nearly seven years — his best advisers have been the people who could give him smart advice and then “keep their mouths shut.”
“And so if I want advisers that way, that’s the kind of adviser I’m going to be for Donald Trump,” Christie told Raddatz. “I’ve said consistently, the advice I give to Donald is to Donald. And that’s based upon our friendship over the last 14 years and the way I would expect to. So Rudy could talk about whatever he wants to talk about. He’s my friend, I like him a lot and respect him, but I don’t talk about the advice I give to Donald Trump.”
