Retired Navy SEAL Carl Higbie cited the U.S. internment camps for the Japanese during World War II as precedent for a Muslim registry.
"It is legal. They say it will hold constitutional muster. I know the ACLU is going to challenge it, but I think it will pass," Higbie, a spokesman for Great America PAC for Donald Trump, told Fox News' "The Kelly File" Wednesday night.
"We've done it with Iran back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese. Call it what you will, maybe wrong."
Ten internment camps were set up throughout the U.S. in 1942. About 120,000 Japanese-Americans were made to leave their homes on the West Coast and move to one of the camps. Most of them remained in the camps throughout the majority of World War II, according to History.com.
Host Megyn Kelly responded that such statements frighten people. "You're not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope… you know better than to suggest that. That's the kind of stuff that gets people scared, Carl."
Higbie, the author of "Enemies, Foreign & Domestic: A SEAL's Story," said he was "not proposing that at all, but what I am saying is we need to protect America first. There is precedent for it and I'm not saying I agree with it."
Kelly expressed surprise at Higbie's internment camp reference and insisted he "can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the president-elect is going to do."
Higbie replied: "The president needs to protect America first and if that means having people that are not protected under our constitution have some sort of registry… until we can identify the true threat and where it's coming from, I support it."
"You get the protections once you come here, " Kelly said before ending the interview.
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach also addressed a possible Muslim registry, saying he discussed it with about a dozen Trump immigration advisers.
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