Department of Homeland Security secretary nominee John Kelly declared his opposition to “generalized surveillance” of mosques or people whose families hail from Muslim-majority countries.
“I don’t think it’s ever appropriate to focus on something like religion as the only factor,” Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, told the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
Democratic Sen. Gary Peters, whose home state of Michigan is home to a large Arab population, cited President-elect Trump’s campaign rhetoric before asking if “generalized surveillance” of mosques or a database of Muslim-Americas would be unconstitutional.
“I’m not a lawyer, but to the degree I understand those laws, yes sir [it would be],” Kelly said. “I don’t agree with registering people based on ethnic[ity] or religion or anything like that.”
