For Immediate Release
December 22, 2016
Washington D.C. – Today, the Department of Homeland Security officially ended a Bush-era registry created after 9/11 to track noncitizen men from predominantly Muslim countries. The registry, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), was shown to be ineffective and had not been used for years. Nonetheless, the NSEERS structure remained intact. NSEERS will be dismantled through a published regulation in the Federal Register called a final rule. Ending NSEERS cannot prevent the Trump Administration from following through on its threats to create a religious registry; however, it does stop the next Administration from using the NSEERS framework without publishing a new regulation.
The following is a quote from Royce Murray, Policy Director at the American Immigration Council:
“Painting entire communities with a broad brush of suspicion is wholly inconsistent with our nation’s values. While we can all agree that national security must be a priority, the NSEERS registration program was widely regarded as an ineffective and obsolete counterterrorism tool. The next administration should not repeat the mistakes of the past and institute any discriminatory registry.”
###
For more information, contact Wendy Feliz at wfeliz@immcouncil.org or 202-507-7524.