WASHINGTON — Civil rights group are citing growing concerns in regards to talks of a ‘Muslim registry’ within President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet. 

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, called on Trump to repudiate a prominent supporter who cited the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans as a “precedent” for an immigrant registry proposed by a member of his presidential transition team.

Carl Higbie, a former spokesman for a political action committee (PAC) that backed Trump in the presidential election, made the comments about internment during an appearance on Fox News.

Higbie was offering support for a proposal by Kris Kobach, a member of the Trump transition team, to reinstate a national registry for immigrants from countries where terrorist groups were active. 

The previous National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) was introduced following the 9/11 terror attacks, but was suspended in 2011 after heavy criticism by civil rights organizations, including CAIR.

NSEERS required certain non-citizen males over the age of 14 from 25 countries to be registered and fingerprinted. With the sole exception of North Korea, every one of the 25 countries on the NSEERS bulletin was Muslim or Arab.

In 2011, CAIR welcomed the suspension of the “ineffective and burdensome program that was perceived as a massive profiling campaign targeting individuals based on their religion and ethnicity.”

“Talk of Muslim registries and internment at a time of unprecedented Islamophobia only serves to deepen divisions resulting from the presidential campaign and does nothing to strengthen our nation’s security,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw. “We must not turn back the clock to times of reactionary programs and policies that have been proven to be ineffective and discriminatory.”

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) submitted a letter co-signed by nearly 200 organizations to President Barack Obama, calling on his administration to rescind the regulatory framework behind the National Security Exit-Entry Registration System (NSEERS). 

The letter was submitted on behalf nearly 200 civil and human rights, civil liberties, education, social justice, and inter-faith organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), The Leadership Conference on Civil Human Rights, American Immigration Council, Center for American Progress (CAP), National Council of La Raza, the National Immigration Forum (NIF), and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). 

“NSEERS has proven to be a failure and it is time to bring it to an end. Since its inception numerous former government officials, both Republicans and Democrats, have expressed concern and frustration with the program,” ADC Legal & Policy Director Abed Ayoub stated. “Many of these same officials agree that the U.S. Government should not engage in any program which is predicated on racial, ethnic and religious profiling. It’s time to close the book on NSEERS and end the program.”

The letter reads in part, “As organizations that represent diverse communities and that are committed to civil and immigrant rights, we firmly believe that removal of the NSEERS framework is a necessary imperative. We ask the Administration to immediately take steps to remove the regulatory structure of NSEERS and stop any future use of the program.”

 The NAACP resolutely condemned such talks as well.

“Our nation’s history contains far too many horrific examples of the oppression and demonization of groups based on religion, race, origin or political affiliation, and we refuse to sit by silently and allow for the creation of new ones,” the NAACP said in a statement. 

“The President-elect may have run a campaign based on the faulty assumption that only through a return to the racialized polarization of the past can America be great again, but those of us who know our history and have a memory of that ugly past will fight with every inch of our spirit to not go back.”