Donald Trump Transition Team Mulling ‘Muslim Registry’, Says Immigration Adviser
Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and adviser to Trump said the president-elect’s immigration team are drafting executive orders that would allow the new White House to secure the rapid construction of wall along the border with Mexico.
Trump’s staff are ensuring that the department of homeland security could "hit the ground running” on issues that were key in the Republican's election campaign, Kobach said.
The Republican president-elect who initially called for a "total and complete shut down of Muslims” entering the US, has revised his position to calling for "extreme vetting” for new arrivals from countries where extremist groups are active.
To this end, Kobach said in an interview with Reuters that Trump’s team were suggesting reinstating the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, a policy briefly implemented in the aftermath of 11 September attacks.
Under the program people from countries deemed "higher risk” were required to undergo interrogations and fingerprinting on entering the US, and some male US non-citizen residents over the age of 16 were required to periodically check in at government offices.
It was abandoned in 2011 after it was deemed redundant by the department of homeland security and criticized by civil rights groups for unfairly targeting immigrants from Muslim-majority nations.
Kobach, one of the most hardline Republican voices on immigration helped design that program whilst working in the department of justice under President George W Bush.
Trump’s office would not immediately confirm Kobach’s role on the transition team.
The Kansas secretary of state has been widely reported to have had influence in Trump’s presidential campaign, and claims to have helped develop Trump’s strategy to "make Mexico pay” for a border wall.
Trump has promised to focus on deporting immigrant with criminal records.
Human rights groups have said the president-elect has put the broadest possible definition on the classification, and could include people who got a speeding or parking ticket.
On Wednesday, Mexico who has repeatedly and flatly refused to bear costs for building a wall, said it was establishing a helpline providing 24 hour consular services for its citizens living in the US.
Bill De Blasio, the Democratic mayor for New York has warned Trump against hardline immigration policies that would sow mistrust between immigrant communities and law enforcement.
He said he had reminded Trump that the New York Police Department had 900 Muslim employees, and also called on the president-elect not to enact immigration policies that would bring mass deportations and see families "torn apart”.
