California Law Will Bar Cities & Counties from Providing Information for a 'Muslim Registry'

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a closely watched bill on Sunday to block the creation of any so-called Muslim registry should President Trump choose to act on a proposal he repeatedly suggested during his 2016 campaign.
Senate Bill 31 by state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) bars state and local governments from releasing personal information to the federal government for the creation of any religious list, registry or database. It also prohibits them from using resources to create their own lists.
Dubbed the California Religious Freedom Act, the bill coasted through the legislative process this year, the only proposal to gain bipartisan support from a package introduced by majority Democrats.
Reza Nekumanesh, executive director of the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno, said the fear of a registry was a reality for Muslim communities. It was only a year ago that, he said, that Trump surrogates referenced Japanese internment camps from World War II as "precedent" for a Muslim registry.
"Every time we have thought about registering people based on ethnicity, based on religion, no good has come of it," Nekumanesh said. – Los Angeles Times