President Obama officially ends NSEERS program
President Obama has formally ended a program implemented to document incoming immigrants based on their country of origin. The National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) was created shortly after and in response to September 11, 2001. It created a separate database for immigrants’ metrics such as fingerprints, photographs, and definitively location. The basis for this informational acquisition had no informational or legal motivation, but was driven instead by the nationality of the immigrant. It was executed not only before incoming immigrants arrived in the country, but also cataloged those already living in the country by those same measures. The decision to formally end the program comes after the president essentially rendered it rudderless in 2011 when he removed the list of countries by which the program operated, but many believed that without complete elimination, the incoming administration would be able to reinvigorate it with little resistance. Now that the program has been eliminated, any attempts to incite a similar protocol from scratch will be required to go through many more phases than amending an already existing program.
To read more about the NSEERS program, click here or here
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