Three days after the killer Islamic State attack on a Berlin Christmas market and 30 days before President-elect Trump can start any program to target and Muslims, the Obama administration has quietly decided to kill a 9/11 era program requiring the registration and fingerprinting of mostly Arab and Muslim visitors and immigrants.
A notice scheduled to be published in Friday’s Federal Register said the Department of Homeland Security will officially end the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, or NSEERS.
The decision came after several groups urged the administration to take the program off the books.
“This is the right decision by Secretary [Jeh] Johnson. We commend him, and the Obama administration, for letting it be known that such registry programs are futile and have no place in our country. However the community cannot be at ease; the next administration has indicated that they will consider implementing similar programs. We will work twice as hard to protect our community and ensure such programs do not come to fruition,” said American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee Legal & Policy Director Abed Ayoub. He sent Secrets a copy of the notice.
The program targeted adult men from 25 mostly Muslim and Arab countries and was instituted after Sept. 11. The goal was to target potential terrorists. It was suspended in 2011 largely because newer technology and visitor entry systems surpassed it.
However, there has been speculation that Trump would use it in his program targeting Muslims. This week, following the Berlin attack, he was asked about his Muslim vetting program, or visitor ban, and he said, “You know my plans.”
The effort to kill the program was led by Ayoub’s group. In a letter to President Obama organized by ADC, the groups said that the registration put 13,000 men into deportation proceedings. It called the registration un-American.
“NSEERS was a discriminatory policy that ran counter to the fundamental American values of fairness and equal protection. Rescinding the regulatory framework of the program will ensure that our nation does not target communities based on national origin and faith in the future,” said the letter.
The American Civil Liberties Union added Thursday, “NSEERS was a completely failed counter-terrorism tool and massive profiling program that didn’t yield a single terrorism conviction in nearly a decade. The ACLU applauds the Obama administration for terminating NSEERS for good. With this action, the U.S. is on the right path to protect Muslim and Arab immigrants from discrimination.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
