Homeland Security: Some Muslims Should Be Under Long-term Surveillance
02-07-2018
A report by the Department of Homeland Security urges authorities to "track" Sunni Muslim immigrants judged to have "at-risk" demographic profiles on a "long-term basis."
The draft report, obtained by Foreign Policy Magazine, studied 25 terrorist attacks in the United States between October 2001 and December 2017 and concluded that there would be "great value for the United States Government in dedicating resources to continuously evaluate persons of interest."
In the report, U.S. Customs and Border Protection identified a broad cross-section of Sunni Muslim residents as being potentially "vulnerable to terrorist narratives."
That conclusion was based on risk factors such as being young, male, and having come to the U.S. from "the Middle East, South Asia or Africa."
If the report's recommendations are implemented, it would significantly expand the Trump administration's policies toward Muslim immigrants, from those trying to enter the United States to those already legally in the country.
The national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, said the draft "ignores the main extremist threat to our nation — that of violence committed by white supremacists."
