Kobach: Trump May Reinstate Registry Of Visitors From Countries With Terror Orgs

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach makes his victory speech at a Republican watch party Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2014, in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
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Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has been advising Donald Trump’s transition team on immigration issues, says that Trump may reinstate a post-9/11 registry of immigrants and visitors from countries with active terrorist groups.

Kobach told Reuters in an interview published Tuesday night said he has had several calls with Trump’s transition team and that they may draft a proposal to bring back something like the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), a program started in 2002 that Kobach helped design under President George W Bush.

Under NSEERS, male visitors and immigrants over the age of 16 from a list of 25 countries, most of which were majority Muslim, had to register, sit for interviews, and check in with officials. The program was criticized for unfairly targeting people from Muslim countries, and the U.S. stopped using the program in 2011.

Kobach also told Reuters that Trump officials are looking at a way to begin building a border wall without approval from Congress by directing the Homeland Security Department to reappropriate existing funds. He said that “that future fiscal years will require additional appropriations” to keep building the wall.

Kobach is known for pushing anti-immigration policies. He helped write bills in Arizona and Mississippi that allowed law enforcement to stop people they believe are undocumented immigrants. He also pushed for Kansas to require voters to provide proof of citizenship and has been a big proponent of voter ID laws. He advised Trump on immigration during the campaign and developed a plan to make Mexico to pay for a border wall.

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  1. Avatar for jep07 jep07 says:

    would that include Kansas?

  2. Avatar for jep07 jep07 says:

    …won’t be hard to find the homegrown terrorists now that Trump’s headed for the iron throne. They feel emboldened,and nothing now can reverse that.

  3. or Northern Ireland ?

  4. Avatar for fitley fitley says:

    From the 2012 election:

    Washington (CNN) - Mitt Romney told an interviewer Monday that he has never met with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, the architect of tough immigration laws in Alabama and Arizona who says he has been counseling Romney for years.

    Univision America Radio host Helen Aguirre-Ferre asked Romney, who spent Monday making a push for Hispanic voters, if Kobach is advising his campaign on immigration policy.

    Kobach told the National Review in April that he has been providing advice to Romney and his advisers since 2008.

    “The governor takes my advice, and does what he wants with it,” Kobach told the conservative magazine.

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