Ex-NYPD boss Ray Kelly defends city’s Muslim spying program, welcomes Trump’s surveillance plans

The city's former top cop said Sunday that the U.S. should more thoroughly vet immigrants, reflecting President-elect Donald Trump’s calls for more scrutiny of people entering the country from predominantly Muslim countries.

Raymond Kelly addressed the need for more “vetting” after John Catsimatidis mentioned the Syrian refugee crisis on his AM 970 morning radio show.

“We need deeper vetting,” Kelly said. “Certainly I think the public wants a higher degree of comfort as to who’s coming in at this time, and I think we are going to have to devote additional resources to examining the backgrounds of individuals coming in, where they live, who their relatives are. ... It’s absolutely necessary.”

Albert Cahn, the director of strategic litigation for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, vowed to fight any effort to institute a national surveillance program.

Read more: