By Dan Nowicki | The Republic | azcentral.com
Republican governors who gathered in Phoenix last week for their annual conference did their best to distance themselves from their congressional GOP counterparts and Capitol Hill political dysfunction.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie cited immigration reform as an example of Washington’s failure to deal with major issues.
Speaking Thursday at a news conference at the Republican Governors Association meeting at the Phoenician resort, Christie said the broken U.S. immigration system “has an effect on the people of our states, on the economies of our states” and needs a solution.
Christie declined to endorse specifics of a legislative remedy, such as a pathway to citizenship for most of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants who have settled in the United States. He said it is up to President Barack Obama and Congress to figure out a compromise, just as he has to do in dealing with the Democrat-controlled New Jersey Legislature.
“The inaction down there on this problem, a problem that we’ve all seen for years, is just unacceptable,” Christie said. “They’ve got work to do. Get to work and start to fix the problems.”