Donald Trump’s chief of staff refuses to rule out Muslim registry

The implications go beyond foreign policy.

But with Kobach on the Trump transition team, it seems likely some form of a Muslim registry resembling NSEERS will be enacted.

When Kobach served in the Justice Department during President George W. Bush’s administration, he was the architect of NSEERS. Some non-citizen male USA residents over the age of 16 from countries with active militant threats were required to register in person at government offices and periodically check in. “As we move forward, those matters are going to be more clearly spelled out and you’re going to be aware of it”. “And that’s against their constitutional rights”, she said. It was fully abandoned in 2011.

During his campaign, Trump briefly proposed a database of U.S. Muslim citizens.

His core team, with a chequered past on race relations and civil liberties, reveals clear signs of xenophobia and Islamophobia, with Mr Sessions known to be fiercely opposed to H-1B visas, with which skilled Indian techies work in the U.S. for American companies, Mr Flynn being notorious for inflammatory anti-Muslim comments and Mr Pompeo an India baiter. “A lawful immigrant, a green-card holder or a citizen, or a person who entered the country unlawfully?” he asked at a committee hearing. If you look at San Bernardino as an example, San Bernardino, they had bombs all over the floor of their apartment. Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror, explained to AlterNet that, “For more than a decade, Muslim immigrants in the US have been subject to extra scrutiny and suspicion by federal agencies”. They didn’t turn the people over. Now, before the administration begins, is absolutely the time to take action to make sure that Trump’s administration knows that this type of registry is unwelcome and will not stand in the United States.

This is the program that Trump could reinstate.

His attack dog and rumored potential pick for Secretary of State, Rudy Giuliani, has suggested that Muslims on the government’s watch list should be electronically tagged.

“I am pleased that Lieutenant General Michael Flynn will be by my side as we work to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, navigate geopolitical challenges and keep Americans safe at home and overseas”, Trump said in a statement last week. By summer 2016, the “total and complete shutdown” had morphed into a ban on immigration by Muslims “from any nation that has been compromised by terrorism”.

As attorney general, Sessions will head the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Many, including Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League and Forward contributor Benjamin Gladstone, have said that Jews should register as Muslims if a registry for American Muslims comes to pass.

If Trump overreaches, civil libertarians from left, right and center will be tested.

So, while critics are making many strong policy arguments against any such program, the argument that it would be unconstitutional or even illegal isn’t really valid, he says.