President Barack Obama continued his flurry of 11th-hour moves on Thursday, submitting a final rule to formally end a registry that has not been in use since 2011. It’s the latest in a string of preemptive actions meant to prevent his successor, President-elect Donald Trump, from making good on campaign promises Obama and other Democrats oppose.

The Justice Department under George W. Bush called for the database, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS), after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Kris Kobach, Kansas Secretary of State and member of Trump’s transition team, assisted with the creation of the database. The program registered visitors to the U.S. from certain African and Middle Eastern countries: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and 20 others. Deemed ineffective and out of date by many Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, the program has not been in use since 2011.

Obama’s rule change will effectively erase the regulations for one tool that Trump might have used to make good on his campaign promise of registering all Muslims in the country. DHS’s final ruling said the database is “redundant, captured data manually that was already captured through automated systems, and no longer provided an increase in security in light of DHS’s evolving assessment of the threat posed to the United States by international terrorism.”

Although the program has been dormant since 2011, a 2012 report from the DHS inspector general indicated senior officials had been trying to discontinue the database since 2006. “Information obtained from fingerprints, flight manifests, travel and identification documents and intelligence sources is more valuable in determining who poses a potential national security risk,” the report said, adding that the database has “no discernible public benefit.”

Trump’s latest indication of what he might do to fulfill his immigration promises came Wednesday in Florida. He was asked if he would temporarily ban Muslim immigrants, or create a registry for Muslims, Trump replied: “You know my plans.” A spokesman clarified that the president-elect was referring to his plans to block visitors from countries with histories of Islamic extremism from entering the country.

President Obama’s final ruling is set to take effect immediately after it’s published in the Federal Registry on Friday.

Alec Siegel

Alec Siegel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. When he’s not working at Law Street he’s either cooking a mediocre tofu dish or enjoying a run in the woods. His passions include: gooey chocolate chips, black coffee, mountains, the Animal Kingdom in general, and John Lennon. Baklava is his achilles heel. Contact Alec at ASiegel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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Since his win, President-elect Donald Trump may have tried to calm people who are worried about his presidency by preaching goodwill and by encouraging those inciting violence to stop. But many of his supporters are doing the opposite. On Wednesday night, Trump supporter Carl Higbie appeared on Fox News and cited the Japanese internment camps during World War II as a “precedent” for a Muslim registry, which many Trump supporters have proposed.

Higbie, a former Navy SEAL and spokesman for the pro-Trump Great American PAC, told Megyn Kelly that a registry is perfectly legal–“We did it during World War II with Japanese”–and that we need to protect America. Kelly seemed taken aback at the comment and did her best to challenge him, saying, “That’s the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl.”

About 120,000 people of Japanese descent were relocated from their homes to internment camps by force in 1942. Of those, 62 percent were citizens, and taken away based only on their ethnicity. This happened on orders from President Roosevelt, and in 1944 the Supreme Court upheld the order. It still stands, because no similar case has come before the court since then, but it is hard to believe something like that could ever happen again. Late Justice Antonin Scalia has said it was one of the most shameful mistakes in the Court’s history. Justice Stephen G. Breyer has said it has been “so thoroughly discredited” that it is “hard to conceive of any future court referring to it favorably or relying on it.”

Watching people repeat platitudes about “coming together” while Trump representatives are literally referencing Japanese internment camps.

— Cora Harrington (@lingerie_addict) November 17, 2016

Higbie said that people from other countries have no constitutional rights in America. He didn’t seem to understand that when you gain legal permanent residency or citizenship, you do. According to Slate, even an illegal immigrant has basic human rights in the U.S. For example, the right to a just, public and speedy trial, as defined under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

.@CarlHigbie: “People outside of this country are not protected under the same constitutional rights as we are in America.” #KellyFile

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) November 17, 2016

However, immigration law is separate from criminal law, that is why immigrants who commit crimes could be deported instead of going jail. But even then, they are entitled to a hearing and a lawyer. Yet Higbie stood by his opinion that immigrants have no rights.

@ryepolisciguy @megynkelly wrong

— Carl Higbie (@CarlHigbie) November 17, 2016

One famous voice who has talked about the atrocities of internment camps for Japanese citizens is George Takei, who held a TED Talk about it.

When @GeorgeTakei was 5 years old, he was taken to a Japanese internment camp. Hear his powerful story: https://t.co/Dkr9DkYAQt

— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) November 17, 2016

Trump himself hasn’t commented on Higbie’s statement or what he thinks about internment camps. But in December of last year he claimed that he didn’t know if he would have opposed to the camps in the U.S., saying “I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer.” This doesn’t sound promising.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.

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