Major Trump Backer Cites Internment Camps to
Defend 'Muslim Registry'
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| Trump Administration considers repeating a national disgrace |
A supporter of President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday cited the United States' use of internment camps for Japanese-Americans during World War II as a "precedent" for Trump's rumored "Muslim registry."
Carl
Higbie, a spokesperson for the pro-Trump Great America PAC, defended the
proposed registry to Fox News's Megyn Kelly, who had quoted a
counter-argument that the American government does not catalog people based on
religion.
"Yeah,
well, we have in the past. We've done it based on race, we've done it based on
religion, we've done it based on region," Higbie said, later adding,
"We did it during World War II with Japanese."
The transcript reads:
KELLY: So, you think it's a good idea, and you don't care that this is some sort of a slippery slope where Muslims may just get lumped into some group, where they get put in a registry, and some you know, some aggressive law enforcement actor in the future might abuse that list?
HIGBIE:
Absolutely, look, there is always a case for abuse in this thing. But the
fundamental problem here is we have a large faction, look—Look, being a part of
the Muslim faith is not a bad thing, and there is plenty —there is, you know,
1.6 billion Muslims out there.
[....]
HIGBIE:
Yeah, and to be perfectly honest, it is legal. They say it will hold
constitutional muster. I know the ACLU is gonna challenge it, but I think it'll
pass, and we've done it with Iran back—back a while ago. We did it during World
War II with Japanese, which, you know, call it what you will, maybe—
KELLY:
Come on. You're not—you're not proposing we go back to the days of internment
camps, I hope.
HIGBIE:
No, no, no. I'm not proposing that at all, Megyn, but what I am saying is we
need to protect America from—
KELLY:
You know better than to suggest that. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that
gets people scared, Carl.
HIGBIE:
Right, but it's—I'm just saying there is precedent for it, and I'm not saying I
agree with it, but in this case I absolutely believe that a regional based—
KELLY:
You can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the
president-elect is gonna do.
HIGBIE:
Look, the president needs to protect America first, and if that means having
people that are not protected under our Constitution have some sort of registry
so we can understand, until we can identify the true threat and where it's
coming from, I support it.
Top
Trump adviser and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said last week that the
incoming administration is drafting plans for a database that would require
immigrants and visitors from countries where extremist groups are active to
register with the government.
The
plans may reportedly be modeled after a defunct program launched after 9/11
that required immigrants from "higher risk" countries to undergo
interrogation and fingerprinting.
That program, known as the National Security
Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), was launched in 2002 and ultimately
dismantled in 2011 after outcry from civil rights groups.
President Barack
Obama removed all the countries from the NSEERS list, effectively voiding the
program, but it is still technically in operation.
"Until
the rise of Trumpism, it had been universally recognized that Japanese
internment was one of the most shameful episodes in our country's history, yet
in this new era it is becoming an inspiration for policymaking," said Baher Azmy, legal director at the Center for
Constitutional Rights, in response to Higbie's comments.
"Beyond
an embrace of racism and xenophobia, this level of racial and religious
scapegoating undermines our most basic constitutional values," Azmy said.
"We must start to take him and those who will be empowered in his
administration at their word: we must believe they are working to do what they
said they would do."
