[Free Beacon] The Obama administration is overhauling a national registry program intended to track visitors who arrive in the U.S. from countries with active terrorist groups less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.The registry, called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, was implemented after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, but has been dormant since 2011, the New York Times reported Thursday.
Trump has suggested he would reinstate the program. When asked by a reporter Thursday morning whether he still planned on creating a registry for Muslims and imposing a temporary ban on Muslim immigration, the president-elect replied, "You know my plans."
Kellyanne Conway, a senior Trump aide, clarified hours later that Trump was referring to plans to bar people from countries with a history of homegrown terrorism, the Washington Post reported.
The Department of Homeland Security submitted a rule change on Thursday in the first step toward dismantling the program. The DHS said the registry was "redundant, ineffective, and provided no increase in security." DHS spokesman Neema Hakim added the program is "not only obsolete" and "outdated," but pulls resources from other security areas that are more effective.
Democratic lawmakers have also called for an end to the registry. A joint letter signed by more than 50 Democratic members of the House earlier this month charged, "No known terrorism convictions have resulted from the program."
Civil liberties activists have condemned the program as discriminatory.
.....but bolt their doors at night.
Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state and a member of Trump’s transition team, helped create the program when he served in the Justice Department under former President George W. Bush.
Kobach was photographed last month holding a document that included a proposal for the Trump administration to "Bar the Entry of Potential Terrorists," which would revive the registry system, the Times reported.