Chris Christie: As president I would hire FedEx CEO to teach us how to track immigrants like packages

Appearing at a townhall in Laconia, New Hampshire, GOP presidential contender Chris Christie attempted to set his campaign apart from the pack with a unique suggestion for dealing with immigrants: get Federal Express to teach the government how to track them like they do with packages.

According to Time political correspondent Phil Elliott, Christie gave a lively townhall talk Saturday morning, tweeting: "Man, oh man. Chris Christie's town hall practice in NJ has prepared him well for NH. We've hit the 2-hour mark and he's still got the crowd."

When talk to turned to a favorite Republican hot button issue -- undocumented immigrants -- Christie tossed out the idea of enlisting FEDEX CEO Fred Smith to teach ICE how to track them.

"Christie says, if elected, he'll tap FedEx's Fred Smith for a 3-month gig to teach how to track immigrants w same efficiency as packages, " tweeted Elliott during Christie's talk.

Claude Brodessser -- a politics writer for the Star-Ledger -- confirmed Christie's comments while noting that Smith's daughter works for the Christie campaign. Brodesser tweeted:  "@GovChristie says he'd hire FedEx founder Fred Smith to track visa holders as immigration fix. Christie spox is Smith's daughter, Samantha."

Elliott's tweet drew the attention of Lis Smith, a spokesperson  for Democrat Martin O'Malley's campaign, who tweeted: "Wow. Taking dehumanizing language to new lows."

Others on Twitter mocked the suggestion wondering if ICE was going to "barcode" immigrants and if people would have to sign for them.

Christie is not as much of a hardliner on immigration as GOP frontrunner Donald Trump who wants to ship the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants back to to their countries without mentioning FedEx.