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Plans for ‘extreme vetting’ accidentally revealed by Trump candidate

A photo opportunity Kris Kobach will be ready to forget.

A photo opportunity Kris Kobach will be ready to forget. Photo: Getty

A potential Trump administration cabinet member has accidentally revealed plans for “extreme vetting” of immigrants during a photo opportunity with the President-elect.

While posing with Donald Trump in New Jersey before a meeting, Kansas state secretary Kris Kobach neglected to cover a document outlining plans to re-introduce a post-9/11 registry focusing on Muslims and to ban Syrian refugees.

A Getty photographer snapped the picture, which only required a zoom to give away the highly-sensitive information.

The slip-up is ironic given Mr Kobach is likely vying to head up Mr Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, and given the President-elect’s criticisms of the Obama administration being too transparent about foreign policy.

trump kobach document

Mr Kobach could be in the running for chief of Homeland Security. Photo: Getty

Kris Kobach’s plan for America

The following plans for Mr Kobach’s potential first year in office could be made out in the image:

  • “Update and reintroduce the NSEERS screening and tracking system (National Security Entry-Exit Registration System) that was in place from 2002-2005. All aliens from high-risk areas are tracked.”
  • “Add extreme vetting questions for high-risk aliens: question them regarding support for Sharia law, jihad, equality of men and women, the United States Constitution.”
  • “Reduce the intake of Syrian refugees to zero.”

Who is Kris Kobach?

Mr Kobach’s plan to bring back the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) is unsurprising, given he helped create the registry himself.

Following the 9/11 terror attacks, Mr Kobach led a team of lawyers and researchers to introduce the system for the Bush administration.

Under the system, which was largely dismantled in 2011, non-American citizens from mainly Muslim countries (Iran, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan) were forced to be photographed, fingerprinted and interviewed.

The system was criticised for profiling people based on their ethnicity and religion (24 of the 25 countries on the list were majority Muslim).

The NSEERS was legally challenged multiple times, but never successfully.

Mr Kobach, a lawyer and fierce opposer of illegal immigration, has also challenged laws that award state education to illegal immigrants in Kansas, Nebraska and California.

“If you really want to create a job tomorrow, you can remove an illegal alien today,” Mr Kobach said in 2012.

Trump promises ‘cabinet of patriots’

In a newly-released video, Mr Trump has said his agenda “will be based on a simple core principle: putting America first”. 

He reiterated a number of his promises for the first 100 days of his administration, including vows to dump the Trans-Pacific Partnership and negotiate new trade deals, remove regulations on businesses and establish a five-year ban on executive officials becoming lobbyists.

Notably missing from his promises is his pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act and his vow to build a southern border wall with Mexico.

Mr Trump has yet to hold the traditional news conference that previous Presidents-elect have done within days of winning on Election Day.

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