Chris Christie: Track immigrants like FedEx packages
Summary: On Saturday, Chris Christie proposed his plan for how to track immigrants whose Visas have expired. He said he would like to bring in the FedEx CEO (Fred Smith, whose daughter is a Christie spokeswoman) to work for the government, and give them the technology on how to track the immigrants. Christie thinks this would help the government, "tap you on the shoulder and say,
'Excuse me, it's time to go.'" He also said discussions about the term "anchor baby" make Republicans look unkind towards immigrants, though they are not, they just want to keep everything legal. Christie later stated he is not equating people to packages.
Analysis: Though Christie stated he is not equating people to packages, these comments may be viewed by many as degrading and debasing towards immigrants. Additionally, the last people to mass track an entire section of the population were (you guessed it) Hitler's Nazi Party. Though I'm sure Christie would say that comparison is unjust, is it really? After all, he is planning on documenting these people in order to get rid of them. Furthermore, after "tracking" these immigrants, he will also be "shipping" them back to their native country, pinning them even closer to the packages he has just said they are not. Is this hypothetical system inhumane? Yes, I believe it is. Is Christie's clarification enough to compensate for the way the original comments were likely received by immigrants? No, it is not.
I'm pretty sure that comparing Chris Christie (a controversial political figure) to the Nazi Party (the perpetrators of one of the largest genocides in history) doesn't reflect the magnitude of the horrors committed by the Nazis, but your sentiment rings true. Christie's remarks are more in a series of many problematic, upsetting attempts made by many republican candidates to dehumanize and undermine the people seeking a better life in this country.
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