The Bush administration launched the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERs) in 2002 as part of the U.S. response to the devastating terror attack of September 11. The program made it mandatory for visitors and immigrants from several Muslim countries (and North Korea) to register with the U.S. government upon arriving on the nation’s soil.
President Obama let the program lapse in 2011, but his administration announced Thursday that it was officially abolishing the registry weeks ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“DHS ceased use of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) program in 2011 after finding that the program was redundant, captured data manually that was already captured through automated systems, and no longer provided an increase in security in light of DHS’s evolving assessment of the threat posed to the United States by international terrorism,” read a statement from Homeland Security.
“The regulatory structure pertaining to NSEERS no longer provides a discernible public benefit as the program has been rendered obsolete. Accordingly, DHS is removing the special registration program regulations,” the statement concluded.
The statement made no mention of the incoming president, but the timing leaves little doubt about a connection. Not only did this announcement come less than a month before Trump takes office but in the same week as deadly Islamic terror attacks in Switzerland, Germany, and Turkey.
Asked this week if he still intended to bar Muslims from certain countries from entering the U.S., Trump said, “You know my plans. All along, I’ve been proven to be right, 100 percent correct.”
Those plans have never seriously included a registry of Muslim-American citizens, but that hasn’t kept the media from conflating subjects in an attempt to drum up fear.
But look, there’s no question that Trump is going to shake things up. He sees quite clearly what Democrats and the media have been desperately trying to cover up since 2008. He hasn’t been hypnotized by the left-wing effort to divorce Islamic terrorism from Islam. His top national defense strategist, Michael Flynn, has been sharply critical of the religion and its growing pocket of extremism. This is an administration that will not be paralyzed by political correctness.
Some in the media are trying to make this out to be President Obama “hiding” foreign Muslims from the big, bad Trump. That’s ridiculous. These names and addresses aren’t going anywhere, and Trump can flip the NSEERs switch back on immediately upon taking office. This is a symbolic gesture meant to antagonize the president-elect.
All it does, though, is remind us where Obama’s priorities lie. In a week where 12 German Christmas revelers were slaughtered by an Islamic terrorist, our president’s thoughts are once again with the Muslims.
Man, it’ll be nice to have a president who has his head screwed on right.
