{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/special-registration-asians-and-africans-was-bad-idea-when-bush-tried-it", "Special Registration Of Asians And Africans Was A Bad Idea When Bush Tried It And A Bad Idea Today", "2016-11-18", "2016", "2016-11", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Luis Guti\u00e9rrez", "G000535", "gutierrez.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Washington, DC \u2013 It has been reported that President-elect Trump is considering reinstituting NSEERS, or \u201cSpecial Registration\u201d \u2013 a program that required people from certain countries with large Muslim populations to come forward and be registered with the federal government.\u00a0 A senior Trump advisor and a leader of the transition team, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, designed the plan when he was a key lieutenant to Attorney General John Ashcroft in the months after 9/11.\u00a0 It was a moral, civil rights, due process, and law enforcement disaster.\nRep. Luis V. Guti\u00e9rrez (D-IL) issued a statement today in reaction to the news that Trump is considering reviving the failed and offensive policy. \u00a0Rep. Guti\u00e9rrez represents the Fourth District of Illinois, is a Member of the Judiciary Committee and is the Co-Chair of the Immigration Task Force of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.\u00a0 He is a former Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.\n \n\tThe roundup of men from mostly Asian, Middle Eastern and African countries was one of the darkest chapters of the George W. Bush years.\u00a0 It was a strategy to scare immigrants and yielded zero concrete terrorism leads that led to conviction.\u00a0 Racial, ethnic, religious, and gender profiling is exactly the wrong approach to law enforcement and counter-terrorism.\u00a0 President Trump is assuming office in 2017, not 1947 when red-scare hysteria gripped America.\u00a0 Whenever the United States has used fear of an outside aggressor to round up immigrants \u2013 every single time \u2013 it has been an embarrassment, a travesty, and a dark stain on America not to be repeated.\n \n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://gutierrez.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/special-registration-asians-and-africans-was-bad-idea-when-bush-tried-it"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8951900526881218, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}