Obama eliminates post-9/11 registry for foreigners

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is taking apart a controversial, dormant national registry program that tracked visitors from countries with active terrorist groups for several years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

A final rule eliminating the program will be published in the federal register Friday.

The move would make it more difficult for Presidentelect Donald Trump to revive the registry, which hasn’t been used since 2011. The Department of Homeland Security determined it was ineffective and didn’t improve security. Civil rights advocates have long said the program was discriminatory.

On the campaign trail, Trump promised to track Muslims coming to the U.S. and require them to register.

He later changed his stance to say he would bar people from countries with a record of Islamist extremism.

Trump’s policy advisers have been looking closely at ways to jumpstart the registry, called the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, after he takes office at the end of January.

With the program being officially dismantled Friday, Trump’s team would have to issue new federal rules to restart it, a process that could take several months and would require a period for soliciting comments from the public, which likely would be contentious.

The Trump transition team is preparing several executive actions for the incoming president, Trump spokesman Jason Miller told reporters Thursday when asked about President Barack Obama dismantling the registry.

Stopping “radical Islamic terrorists” from entering the U.S. is of “paramount importance,” Miller said. He didn’t say whether Trump would rebuild the visitor registry.

“The American people strongly support tough measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country,” he said.

When asked Wednesday if he would set up a registry for Muslims or impose a ban on Muslim immigrants in the wake of the truck attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, Trump said simply: “You know my plans.”

Democratic lawmakers and civil liberties advocates have demanded in recent weeks that Obama dismantle the registry.

They’ve cited a 2012 inspector general report that said Homeland Security databases collecting traveler fingerprints, flight manifests and intelligence information on foreigners are more effective at preventing terrorist attacks.