How would Donald Trump’s ‘Muslim registry’ work and can the President make it happen?
DONALD Trump backed setting up a register of Muslims during his election campaign.
Video footage from November last year shows Trump, who was then campaigning for the Republican nomination, saying he would bring in "a lot of systems" to track Muslims in the US.
His team have since backtracked, saying the President-elect "never advocated for any registry or system that tracks individuals based on their religion".
In another about-turn, a Trump administration insider said there will be a database similar to a scheme brought in by President Bush that has since become defunct.
But if Trump were to follow through with such a system, what would it look like and how would it work?
Reviving the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS)?
The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System was brought in by the Bush administration in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
It sought to track visa-holders who weren't citizens -- such as tourists, contract workers and students.
Chief among the list of those registered were citizens of muslim-majority countries.
All adult males from 25 countries had to register, with the only non muslim-majority country in that list being North Korea.
The rest included: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
NSEERS required entrants to the US to give their fingerprints, have their photo taken and sit through an interview.
They were then expected to regularly check in with immigration officers.
The programme also tracked when people were due to leave the country to ensure over-stayers could be found and potentially deported.
Why did NSEERS fail and could it be brought back?
Around 80,000 people were tracked through the NSEERS programme.
But it was brought to a halt in 2011 by President Obama, who took the 25 countries off the blacklist.
Security officials said the programme was too inefficient, but pressure from civil rights groups is thought to have had an impact.
However, while the system was suspended it was never fully shut down.
This means that if President-elect Trump chose, he could bring back NSEERS in a tweaked format.
It is this that a Trump spokesperson hinted at when denying that people would be tracked by their religion.
Jason Miller, Trump's communications chief, said: "The national registry of foreign visitors from countries with high terrorism activity that was in place during the Bush and Obama administrations gave intelligence and law enforcement communities additional tools to keep our country safe, but the President-elect plans on releasing his own vetting policies after he is sworn in."
Civil Rights groups are expected to mount legal challenges against such a scheme if it were introduced.
The American Civil Liberties Union said the Trump administration would have to "contend with the full firepower of the ACLU at every step."
READ MORE
'IT WAS REAL JOY' Mike Pence raves about ‘Hamilton’ despite boos – risking Donald Trump’s fury
Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368