Eliza Collins

USA TODAY

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach says he's been participating in calls with advisers to Donald Trump on immigration policy, and one policy the group may recommend is to reinstate a national registry of immigrants from countries with extremist activity.

The registry was canceled in 2011 because the Department of Homeland Security said it was redundant and critics said it unfairly targeted immigrants from majority-Muslim nations.

According to Reuters, Kobach said he supports “extreme vetting” of some Muslim immigrants and he is part of an immigration policy group advising the president-elect. Kobach said one of the recommendations could be to revive the registry.

The registry, known as the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, was put in place in the wake of 9/11 before being ditched a decade later.

Kobach worked on the original program following the attack when he worked for former president George W. Bush’s Department of Justice.

An aide to Trump said that Kobach was not an adviser to the president-elect. But the aide, who requested anonymity to speak freely, defended the registry and said the "program was for high-risk countries in place for years, not Muslim registries."

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"I think what gets lost is that it was a program that was also in place under Obama. I mean, everyone who crosses our borders is logged in the system. There’s just a higher focus on individuals who come from areas of greater concern," the aide continued.

But in 2015, Trump said he would “certainly implement” a database that tracked United States Muslims.

And Trump has called for "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” The policy proposal is still on his campaign website. While his aides insist that doesn’t mean “all” Muslims, they have not said what exactly it does mean.

But on Fox News Wednesday night a Trump supporter and spokesman for one of a pro-Trump super pac during the campaign fed more fuel to the idea. Carl Higbie said that there was precedent for registries — Japanese internment camps.

“I think it will pass. We’ve done it with Iran awhile ago. We’ve done it during World War II with Japanese, which call it what you will but —“ Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and spokesman for a pro-Trump super PAC during the campaign.

“You’re not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps I hope,” Kelly interrupted.

“No I’m not proposing that at all Megyn but what I am saying is we need to protect America first,” Higbie continued. “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.”

The Democratic National Committee issued a statement in response to Kobach’s comment Wednesday.

“Donald Trump’s proposed ‘Muslim registry’ is nothing less than institutionalized discrimination and a brazen assault on freedom of religion. The Trump team has clearly forgotten history and they’re already dooming their own chances of success by repeating the worst mistakes of the past,” Democratic National Committee National Press Secretary Mark Paustenbach said. “This is a shameful and dangerous start, and they will be held accountable.”

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