Donald Trump says keeping America safe from "radical Islamic terrorism" will take an unprecedented surveillance of Muslims — and does not rule out the possibility of warrantless searches.
In a
Yahoo interview posted Thursday, the GOP presidential front-runner says in the wake of the ISIS attacks in Paris last week, "security is going to rule" in the United States to take on "radical Islamic terrorism."
Trump has already vowed to take an aggressive approach with Muslims in the United States, suggesting there should be an
effort to monitor mosques.
Asked by Yahoo News if warrantless searches might be included in his approach, Trump responded: "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," he said.
"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."
He also would not rule out whether such tracking might require registering Muslims in a database, or a form of special identification.
"We're going to have to — we're going to have to look at a lot of things very closely," Trump said of the idea. "We're going to have to look at the mosques. We're going to have to look very, very carefully."
Though America has agreed to take in 10,000 refugees from Syria, where ISIS has its strongest hold — a move getting strong
resistance from Congress — Trump vows as president he'll deport any Syrian refugees allowed to enter under President Barack Obama.
"They're going to be gone. They will go back . . . I've said it before, in fact, and everyone hears what I say, including them, believe it or not," Trump said of the refugees.
"But if they're here, they have to go back, because we cannot take a chance. You look at the migration, it's young, strong men. We cannot take a chance that the people coming over here are going to be ISIS-affiliated."
Trump also tells Yahoo news that former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, the architect of the
New York Police Department's mosque surveillance program, which was ended last year amid controversy, is someone he might think about for a spot in a Trump administration.
"Ray's a great guy," Trump said. "Ray did a fab job as commissioner and, sure, Ray would be somebody I'd certainly consider."
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