In an appearance on “The Kelly File” on Fox News, staunch supporter of Donald J. Trump, Carl Higbie, made comments referring to a suggestion by Kris Kobach, a member of Mr. Trump’s transition team, that the new administration could establish a national registry for immigrants from countries where terrorist groups were active. It is clear that it would be a registry for Muslim immigrants.
“We’ve done it based on race, we’ve done it based on religion, we’ve done it based on region,” Mr. Higbie said. “We’ve done it with Iran back — back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese.”
When the show’s host guessed he was not proposing that America goes back to the days of internment camps, Higbie denied that, but said, “We need to protect America first.” Mr. Higbie’s comments were met with furious criticism by civil rights activists, Muslim organizations and politicians.
Kris Kobach, the secretary of state for Kansas, said that Trump team would force immigrants from Muslim countries to register on a database and also said the Trump administration could push ahead rapidly on construction of a US-Mexico border wall without seeking immediate congressional approval.
Mr. Kobach was referring to the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System which was first proposed and created in 2002 following the 9/11 attack, under Mr. Bush’s presidency.
Mr. Kobach helped to create and carry out the system when he worked for Attorney General John Ashcroft. This program has caused widespread controversy and was abandoned in 2011, following complaints from civil libertarians. For example, the Center for Immigrants’ Rights at the Pennsylvania State University’s law school called it a “tool that allowed the government to systematically target Arabs, Middle Easterners, Muslims and South Asians” and a “clear example of discriminatory and arbitrary racial profiling.”
Donald J. Trump led an aggressive campaign and one of the important questions he was introducing through his campaign was “extreme vetting” of Muslims. Tougher security measures included the establishment of a Muslim database. On social media, many non-Muslims have shown solidarity and even chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League made the statement: “if one day Muslims will be forced to register, that is the day that this proud Jew will register as a Muslim.”
It seemed that, after election, Mr. Trump had pulled back on the anti-Muslim propaganda, but he still intends to follow his plans. He said in an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes” show that he would deport two to three million undocumented immigrants “immediately” upon taking office, and confirmed he still planned to “build a wall”, although he added that some parts of the barrier would in fact be a fence.
Photo Credits: Mashable
