Trump Considers Database, IDs to Track U.S. Muslims
In an interview with Yahoo News this week, Donald Trump discussed the possibility of creating databases or new forms of identification to track Muslims in the Unites States, in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks.
“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule,” Trump said, adding that “certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy.”
When a Yahoo News reporter asked Trump if that meant databases and IDs to track individuals’ religion, the Republican presidential candidate “wouldn’t rule it out,” according to the publication.
“We’re going to have to look at a lot of things very closely,” Trump said. “We’re going to have to look at the mosques. We’re going to have to look very, very carefully.”
Trump’s comments come during a week that’s been largely dominated by intense discussion about the fate of refugees in the wake of the Paris attacks. More than 30 U.S. governors and a number of other political figures have spoken out against allowing Syrian refugees into the United States, sometimes with heated rhetoric. For instance, the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, issued a statement Wednesday positively citing the nation’s World War II-era Japanese internment program in calling on the rejection of Syrian refugees.
Decisions about the resettlement of foreign refugees are made at the federal, not state or local, level.
President Obama continues to support admitting Syrian refugees into the United States.