Discrimination Against Muslims 2016: Obama Urged To End Surveillance Program Before Trump's Inauguration

Thousands of Muslim Americans and their advocates were protesting the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NEERs) during a march to the White House on Monday, according to reports. Protesters and activists from various organizations were expected to call on President Barak Obama to end for good the surveillance program that has singled out Arabs and Muslims following the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The protest is being considered a last-ditch effort to convince Obama to end the surveillance program before President-Elect Donald Trump officially takes off in January.

NEERs, a program inducted by the Bush administration back in 2002 that tracked men and boys entering and exiting the U.S. from countries like Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Yemen, was suspended by Obama in 2011. However, Muslim Americans and activist groups have expressed fear that NEERs will be restored under Trump’s administration. The president-elect has already made threats regarding “extreme vetting” of newcomers from various countries known for terrorist activity.

Although Trump has back-pedaled on claims that he will ban all Muslims from entering the country, a statement he made during his presidential campaign, a Trump advisor and one of NEERs founders claimed Trump will “update and reintroduce” NEERs following his induction into office.

Before NEERs was suspended, the system forced more than 80,000 men and boys from predominately Arabic and Muslim-influenced countries to register. It was also responsible for the deportation of nearly 14,000 people. However, the system, which has been called discriminatory by congress officials and activists alike, failed to actually convict any terrorists, which the Department of Homeland Security said was the reason why the program was suspended along with other redundancies and inefficiencies.

“NEERs was a completely failed counterterrorism tool,” Joanne Lin, who provides legislative counsel for ACLU, one of the many groups participating in the march, told the Guardian. “It was in effect for nearly a decade, but NSEERS didn’t yield a single terrorism conviction. Instead it alienated Muslim and Arab American communities around the country who saw their husbands, uncles, brothers appear for registration, for no reason than their nationality.”

The march started at 1:15 p.m. EST at the Department of Justice in Washington D.C. and was expected to end at Lafayette Park, right outside of the White House.