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NorthJersey Published 12:09 a.m. ET Feb. 5, 2017 | Updated 7 hours ago

Chris Christie(Photo: Julio Cortez/AP)

What a difference nine years make. In 2008, U.S. Attorney Chris Christie said immigrants living in the United Sates without valid documentation were not in violation of the U.S. criminal code.

In 2013, when running for a second term as governor, Christie supported a bill allowing undocumented college-age immigrants who were brought into the United States as children so-called Dreamers to attend state colleges and universities at in-state tuition rates. He signed the bill into law.

But in 2017, Governor Christie is really willing to partner with President Donald Trump in punishing municipalities that proclaim a willingness to aid undocumented people.

The governor said that on Fox News Channels OReilly Factor Thursday night. Christie has been making the rounds of talk shows of late, perhaps a sign that he is looking to once again raise his national profile as the Trump administration stumbles in its first weeks.

Back in 2008, Christie was a gubernatorial hopeful and was pitching himself as a pragmatic Republican, someone who would govern a blue state with an even hand. Christie made a nuanced distinction between a violation of criminal law and a civil law. There are differences, from a legal perspective, between crossing the border illegally and entering legally but then overstaying a visa.

But to many Americans in 2017, this is a moot point. Trump campaigned heavily on building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border, instituting some form or Muslim immigration ban and cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities.

What makes a municipality a sanctuary city is not well defined. Some city councils pass ordinances declaring an intention to not enforce federal immigration policy. Other cities just do not want to be forced into dealing with federal immigration policy. Many police departments rightly believe if they are forced to act as federal immigration agents, they compromise their relationships in the very communities federal officials need willing partners.

There was a time Christie understood this completely. Federal officials in New Jersey in the months following 9/11 built bridges. Now the Trump administration and a willing Christie want walls.

Writing today in the Sunday Opinion section about Trumps refugee ban, Newark Cardinal Joseph Tobin says, Scripture impels my brother bishops and I to call on the federal government to alter its executive actions, and instead craft a well-conceived and comprehensive approach to immigration and refugee resettlement reform that both protects our people and national security and treats newcomers and refugees with respect, mercy, love and kindness.

That approach has to also apply to how the federal government deals with the 11 million undocumented people living in the United States. Rather than punish cities, the Trump administration should be focused on how to reform U.S. immigration policies and forge a legislative compromise in Congress that separates individuals who should be deported from the millions of people who are contributing to U.S. society and need to be taken out of the shadows.

It is not an easy task. And it is one where Christie could play an important part on the national stage as a former U.S. attorney and a governor of a diverse state. It just depends on which Christie shows up the one from 2008 or 2017.

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Editorial: There are two Christies on immigration reform - NorthJersey.com