Top Democratic lawmakers and rights bodies have slammed President-elect Donald Trump’s reported plan to reinstate a database of immigrants from Muslim-majority countries.
National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) is a post-9/11 programme which required travellers to the US from specified Muslim-majority countries to immediately register with the federal Government or face deportation.
“Reinstating failed programs that target Arabs and Muslims is exactly what ISIS was cheering on election night when America gives in to fear and begins chipping away at civil rights, our enemies are emboldened and their ranks swell with new recruits,” Senator Dick Durbin said.
“Back in 2002, I called for this program to be terminated because there were serious doubts it would help combat terrorism. Terrorism experts have since concluded that this program wasted precious homeland security funds and alienated Arab- and Muslim-Americans. Failed programs like this are the exact wrong approach to combating terrorism, and I will fight to ensure it never returns,” Durbin said.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus Co-Chairs Raul M Grijalva and Keith Ellison, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chairwoman Judy Chu, CPC Vice Chair Congressman Mike Honda, and CPC Vice Chair Mark Takano slammed Trump surrogate, Carl Higbie, for suggesting that Japanese-American internment camps could serve as a precedent for creation of a Muslim registry.