Trump's top adviser says no plans for American Muslim registry
Incoming White House chief-of-staff Reince Priebus has noted, however, that the Trump administration is “not going to rule out anything” when it comes to immigration.
By JPOST.COM STAFFUpdated: NOVEMBER 21, 2016 14:11US President elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus (C) as Vice President-elect Mike Pence (R) looks onat election night rally in Manhattan, New York, US, November 9, 2016(photo credit: REUTERS)
The newly appointed White House Chief-of-Staff to US President-elect Donald Trump said Sunday morning that there are no plans to set up a domestic registry list for American Muslims.Yet, Reince Priebus, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, noted that the administration was “not going to rule out anything” when it comes to immigration.“Where systematic terrorism is taking place, where countries are harboring or in places where countries are harboring and training terrorists, we’re going to temporarily suspend immigration from that country, or region, until a better vetting system is put in place,” he told CNN during an interview.Donald Trump urges ban on Muslims entering USThe question arose after a Trump policy adviser, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, said last week that the new administration may consider instituting a registry for incoming immigrants from Muslim countries.Echoing the sentiment, Preibus told CNN that the American people had a right to be concerned about immigrants emanating from the Muslim world.“There are some people within that particular religion that we do fear,” Priebus said of Islam. “We don’t believe in religious tests and we are not blanketly judging an entire religion, but in fact we will try to pinpoint the problems and temporarily suspend [people from] those areas from coming into the United States until a better vetting system is in place.”He later commented on NBC's "Meet the Press," that Trump “believes that no faith in and of itself should be judged as a whole” but that “there are some people that need to be prevented from coming into this country.”When asked by NBC if a Muslim registry was still a policy goal of Trump's, Priebus responded: “Look, I’m not going to rule out anything. But, but I wouldn’t — we’re not going to have a registry based on a religion.”Trump's proposed Muslim ban first garnered attention after a married couple from San Bernardino, California killed 14 people during a shooting spree in the name of Islamic State last December."Until we are able to determine and understand this problem and the dangerous threat it poses, our country cannot be the victims of horrendous attacks by people that believe only in Jihad, and have no sense of reason or respect for human life," Trump said shortly after the incident.