Statue of Liberty Photo : I, Laslovarga via Wikimedia Commons
The Obama administration moved Thursday to dismantle a 9/11 era registry program known as National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which required visitors mostly from Muslim countries to register after their arrival and report to government offices.
The Department of Homeland Security submitted a rule change to the federal registry to shut down NSEERS amidst suggestions by some aides of President-elect Donald Trump that the program, suspended since 2011, could be revived to deal with terrorism challenges.
The change will be published to the federal registry Friday. A number of human rights organizations and activists had urged President Barack Obama to do away with the registry program, saying it unfairly targeted all visitors from Muslim countries and goes against the US commitment to religious freedom and fundamental human liberty.
Under NSEERS, some 85,000 people were registered and 13,000 immigrants were removed, according to media reports.
“D.H.S. ceased use of Nseers more than five years ago, after it was determined the program was redundant, inefficient and provided no increase in security,” Neema Hakim, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement.
The program is “not only obsolete” and “outdated,” but diverts personnel and resources from other areas that are seen as more effective, the statement said.
According to The New York Times a 2012 report by the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security said that since 2006, senior officials in the agency had been calling for the termination of the program, and in the report, the inspector general recommended that it be ended.
“Information obtained from fingerprints, flight manifests, travel and identification documents and intelligence sources is more valuable in determining who poses a potential national security risk,” the report said, according to the Times citing customs and border control officers.
