Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie — while speaking at a New Hampshire campaign event Tuesday — said the pathway to citizenship “is garbage.”
CHRISTIE: The most important thing is E-verify. Let’s remember why most folks are coming here in the first place… to work. I’ve met lots of undocumented folks in my state over the course of my time as governor, and I can tell you not one of them has told me they came here to vote. This path to citizenship stuff is garbage. That’s not why they’re coming. They’re coming to work and to support their family. If they know they can’t get a job unless they come here the right way, that every employer in America is going to have to use E-verify, and if they violate the law — the employer violates the law — by employing an illegal person that the fines are large enough to wipe out any profit margin they get from hiring cheaper illegal labor… Believe me. Business reacts to the bottom line. Right now they are reacting to the bottom line by hiring illegal people because it’s cheaper labor. It hurts American workers, and it helps their bottom line. If they know by doing that, that it’s going to hurt the bottom line, they’ll change their conduct, and if people aren’t being employed, then there’s no reason to come. That’s why it’s the single most important part of this plan because that’s why they’re coming. We need to understand the motivation and react to the motivation.
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