Obama just made it much harder for Trump to build his “Muslim registry” Vox.COM........Dara Lind
Instead of reanimating a Bush-era registration program, Trump will have to go back to square one.
Instead of reanimating a Bush-era registration program, Trump will have to go back to square one.
For nine years, from 2002 to 2011, a version of one of Donald Trump’s most extreme proposals was standard US government policy: requiring certain people in the US on visas from Muslim-majority countries to register with the government.
President Barack Obama suspended the program in 2011 — after years of complaints by civil rights groups that the program targeted Muslims and wasn’t effective in preventing terrorism. But it had never been fully dismantled — it was still sitting around for the Trump administration to dust off.
Until now.
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security published a regulation that would totally get rid of the National Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) — forcing the Trump administration to take the time to create something new, and giving civil-rights groups an opportunity to stop them.
The regulation goes into effect Friday, December 22 — well before President Trump is inaugurated. So when his administration takes office — if it’s serious about finding a way to register people from Muslim-majority countries in the US — it’s going to have to find another way to do it.
President Barack Obama suspended the program in 2011 — after years of complaints by civil rights groups that the program targeted Muslims and wasn’t effective in preventing terrorism. But it had never been fully dismantled — it was still sitting around for the Trump administration to dust off.
Until now.
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security published a regulation that would totally get rid of the National Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) — forcing the Trump administration to take the time to create something new, and giving civil-rights groups an opportunity to stop them.
The regulation goes into effect Friday, December 22 — well before President Trump is inaugurated. So when his administration takes office — if it’s serious about finding a way to register people from Muslim-majority countries in the US — it’s going to have to find another way to do it.
The best thing that Trump can do now would be to not allow any muslim immigrants into the country until he can get his own National Entry-Exit Registration System in place. If that takes him 4 or hopefully 8 years to get it done, so much the better.
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