New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has blasted President Barack's immigration policies while admitting that he‘s reluctant to shelter undocumented immigrants in the Garden State.
Speaking in Marion, Iowa, the Republican governor said he will closely examine federal requests for "help and assistance" in housing illegals temporarily in his state before making any decisions, according to
the Star-Ledger.
"We are an empathetic people in this country and we don't like seeing people suffer," he said. "But, on the other hand, I'm not going to be someone who's going to play a role in encouraging this kind of conduct.
"We'll take every request as it comes based on its merits and make those decisions. But here's what I don't want to participate in, I don't want to participate in encouraging this and that would be the wrong step to take."
Christie's comments came during a three-city tour of the Hawkeye State while campaigning as chairman of the Republican Governors Association on behalf of Iowa's five-term Gov. Terry Branstad, who is expected to be re-elected in November.
Christie has joined with governors across the country, including Democrats like Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, who have
balked at housing thousands of migrants while they are processed by immigration authorities for potential deportation at a later date.
The New Jersey leader also blamed Obama for the crisis, saying that he has failed to prevent the flood of illegal aliens pouring in from Central American countries.
"Frankly, the administration has done an awful job in securing our border and they need to do that, and I think they've done an awful job in trying to handle this situation," he said.
But when he was pressed about how he would stem the tide of illegals and the resulting humanitarian crisis, he refused to respond.
"I'm not going to discuss a complicated issue like immigration in a parking lot here in Marion," he said. "It really deserves a much deeper and more thoughtful conversation than we can have here right now."
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