Skip to Main Content

Trump calls for bringing back surveillance of Muslim communities

151119_donald_trump_ap_1160.jpg

AP Photo

By Nick Gass

Updated:

In the days following last Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris, Donald Trump has sought to bolster his credibility as a tough enforcer, painting others as weak and suggesting that he would do whatever it took to stop a similar attack.

In a string of new radio ads announced Wednesday, Trump and his supporters talk about the candidate’s plan to strengthen the military and to defeat the Islamic State.

“The tragic attacks in Paris proves once again that America needs to get tough on radical Islamic terrorism,” Trump says in the spot titled “Dangerous,” warning against allowing in the refugees coming from Syria, pledging to “quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS.”

On Thursday, he expanded upon his calls for increased surveillance of the Muslim community in the United States, warning followers on social media and in interviews that the Islamic State could easily penetrate the country and implying that some members of the group might already be attempting to do so.

Following the release of a new video from the terrorist group threatening an attack in New York City, Trump called upon Mayor Bill de Blasio to restart surveillance of mosques and the city’s Muslim community, which the New York Police Department began shortly after the 9/11 attacks in an attempt to keep tabs on potential terrorist threats. De Blasio disbanded the unit in April 2014.

“There’s hatred and there’s hatred like nobody has ever seen, and it’s obviously emanating from and coming out of, among other places, the mosques,” the Republican presidential candidate said in a Thursday interview with Sirius XM’s “Breitbart News Daily.”

“I think we ought to start [surveillance] up again, and we ought to start it up this morning. We ought to start it up again and get going. And use your head. This is a lot of nonsense that we ended that,” he went on.

The program was a “good thing” that yielded “frankly good information,” he remarked. “And I think we ought to start it up and not be naive and not be stupid. And they ought to start that up immediately.”

“As far as weapons, they’ll use anything they can get,” Trump said of terrorists, mocking concerns about a potential erosion of civil liberties. “These people will use anything — they’re not worried about ‘Oh gee, this isn’t ethical.’ These are not people that are politically correct.”

A federal lawsuit was filed in 2012 challenging the New York Police Department’s surveillance of Muslim communities and alleging that police used the plaintiffs’ Muslim identity as a “permissible proxy for criminality.” In October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit reversed a previous decision that the plaintiffs did not have standing, as well as ruling that it could not accept “national security” as a reason for the NYPD’s surveillance. The case is ongoing.

In an interview with Yahoo News published Thursday, Trump did not rule out warrantless searches or registering Muslims in a database.

“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule,” Trump told Yahoo in response to a question about the searches. “And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

Trump continued his push on Twitter and Instagram, referencing a confirmed Breitbart News report that eight Syrian refugees were detained attempting to enter Texas from Mexico on Monday.

In an Instagram video Thursday, Trump speculated that the men detained could be part of the Islamic State.

“Syrians are now being caught at the southern border, just like I said. They’re going to be pouring in. We don’t know who they are,” Trump from his desk. “Could be ISIS. We need a new leader.”

In a later tweet, the candidate boasted that “everyone” is now following his lead on illegal immigration and building a wall.