Christie criticizes Clinton's call for pathway to citizenship

May 18, 2015, 7:15 PM Last updated: Monday, May 18, 2015, 7:16 PM
By MELISSA HAYES

Governor Christie criticizes Democrat Hillary Clinton’s call for a pathway to citizenship for people living in the country illegally and acknowledges that his position has changed, in an interview with Fox News set to air Monday night.

Christie is scheduled to appear on The Kelly File at 9 p.m. Monday. The wide-ranging interview will cover everything from his foreign policy address in New Hampshire Monday morning, to immigration, poll numbers and why he didn’t run for president in 2012 but is considering it now, according to excerpts released by Fox News.

“I think that, quite frankly, what Hillary Clinton’s doing right now is pandering,” Christie tells host Megyn Kelly in the excerpts. “That’s pandering. We need to have an intelligent conversation about this and bring the American people along to where we can find consensus.”

Kelly asks Christie why he’s changed his position, after supporting a pathway to citizenship in 2010, the year he took office. in July 2010, Christie told ABC News that Obama and Congress “have to put forward a commonsense path to citizenship for people.”

Christie told Kelly he’s learned more about the issue since them.

“I think everyone has to do what you need, to be able to get educated on these issues and learn, and back in 2010 I was in my first couple months as governor,” he tells Kelly. “I’ve now learned some of the ramifications of some of these things and what I am saying now is we’ve got to come up with a solution for it.”

Christie said Clinton’s proposal is “not based upon an educated study of an issue.”

Christie has been asked about his stance on illegal immigration at each of his five town hall-style events in New Hampshire this year. He has said he doesn’t support building a wall across the entire southern border, and instead would use a combination of walls, technology and manpower to enforce the country’s boundaries.

The governor has said that he believes people come here illegally to work and employers should be held accountable and face penalties for hiring undocumented workers.

Christie has yet to offer a proposal for what he would do with the people already living in the country illegally, but has acknowledged he doesn’t think they will self-deport and that there aren’t enough law enforcement officials in the country to detain them all.

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