Tough talk on U.S. Muslims latest salvo in campaign war
Ted Cruz’s proposal this week that police should “patrol and secure” Muslims neighborhoods in the U.S. in the wake of the Brussels bombings touched off a firestorm of backlash from prominent civil rights groups, as well as congressional colleagues.
Since the terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Donald Trump and Cruz have been trying to outdo each other by proposing tougher scrutiny on U.S. Muslims and incoming refugees, Rice University political scientist Mark Jones said.
Trump ignited the rhetoric race by suggesting in December that the U.S. should temporarily bar all Muslims from entering the U.S. Shortly after, Cruz unveiled a bill that would allow governors to bar placement of Syrian refugees in their states. It’s also the latest salvo in the battle between Cruz and Trump for capturing more primary voters through strong talk on terrorism.
The Brussels attacks on Tuesday in a metro station and airport, which killed at least 31 and injured more than 300, provides further fodder to this duel, Jones said. “We’re now in a two-horse race for the Republican nomination,” he said. “Cruz is very much not trying to let Trump outflank him to the right. The last thing Cruz wants is for there to be daylight between him and Donald Trump on this issue.”
Cruz defends comments about Muslim patrols
Prep for the polls: See who is running for president and compare where they stand on key issues in our Voter Guide
In a statement released Tuesday morning, Cruz restated his call to “immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaida or ISIS presence,” such as Iraq or Syria. He also called for the “need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized.”
The comments were immediately rebuked by groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council of American-Islamic Relations.
Cruz's proposal "is not only unconstitutional, it is unbefitting anyone seeking our nation’s highest office and indicates that he lacks the temperament necessary for any president,” CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
Rep. Tammy Duckworth, an Illinois Democrat and former U.S. Army helicopter pilot who lost her legs in 2004 when her helicopter was shot down in Iraq, said Cruz's claims sends the wrong message to Muslims. "When we say this kind of thing we promote the divisive rhetoric, the propaganda that ISIS is selling, which will create the next insurgent that’s going to shoot down an American helicopter like the guy that shot me down," Duckworth told Mashable.
USA TODAY's 2016 Presidential Poll Tracker
The Cruz campaign later reiterated the candidate’s stance, claiming President Obama's administration has failed to recognize a growing radical Islamic threat in America due to fear of being labeled “politically incorrect.” Radical Islamic terrorism should be targeted by local law enforcement agencies the way they target drugs, gangs and human trafficking, it said.
“We know what is happening with these isolated Muslim neighborhoods in Europe,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said in a statement. “If we want to prevent it from happening here, it is going to require an empowered, visible law enforcement presence that will both identify problem spots and partner with non-radical Americans who want to protect their homes.”
But singling out neighborhoods by the religion of its residents for increased surveillance is unconstitutional and would lead to lawsuits, said Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU's National Security Project. A similar initiative to allow police to monitor Muslim communities in New York under former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was attacked in federal court and was largely curtailed following a court settlement earlier this year, she said.
"Religious profiling is unconstitutional," Shamsi said. "Religious freedom and equal protection of the law are two of the fundamental rights the founders enshrined in our constitutional. Any kind of program that singled out Muslims or any faith or minority community for warrantless surveillance would violate those rights."
Despite constitutional questions, rhetoric like Cruz's and Trump's are striking a strong chord among many GOP primary voters. A February University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that 62% of Texas Republicans supported banning non-U.S. Muslims from entering the USA.
“There’s an audience for what they’re saying,” said James Henson, the poll’s co-author and director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. “And they know that.”
In Cruz’s hometown of Houston, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the country, the candidates' calls to monitor Muslims have brought a mix of anger and trepidation. Since the San Bernardino shooting, the Syrians, Iraqis, Egyptians and other Muslim groups in Houston have sensed an increased hostility toward them, said Shireen Jasser, president of the Syrian American Council of Houston.
Cruz’s latest remarks will only worsen those tensions and further alienate U.S. Muslims, she said.
“It’s something so discriminatory, something so un-American,” Jasser said. “It’s quite frankly shocking.”