Citizenship question could cloud census

Former officials, civil rights advocates fear query will threaten accurate count in 2020

WASHINGTON — Two former Census Bureau directors have joined Latino groups and civil rights advocates in warning that a request by the Justice Department to add a question in the 2020 census about citizenship status would diminish participation and threaten an accurate count.

The 2020 census already is plagued by a shortage of funds, the failure of the Trump administration to appoint a Census Bureau director and the potential security of new methods designed for the first primarily online effort to count every person in the U.S.

In November, Census Bureau officials revealed initial testing in Texas and around the country found unprecedented concerns about confidentiality that could deter people from filling out the questionnaire.

Now, critics contend, the Justice Department request to ask everyone about their citizenship poses yet another threat to the 2020 count late in the planning.

“I’m fearful that it would reduce participation of Hispanics, particularly those who are undocumented,” said Steve Murdock, Census Bureau director in the George W. Bush administration.

Murdock, a Rice University professor, said a severe undercount conceivably could affect the apportioning of 435 seats in Congress based on population gains and losses tallied in the census.

Legal challenges predicted

Texas stands to gain three congressional seats as a result of the new count, and Texas Latinos are pressing for added representation at all levels to match their burgeoning population.

Kenneth Prewitt, who ran the Census Bureau in the Clinton administration, contended that adding a citizenship question could have “huge, unpredictable consequences,” given “an atmosphere of mistrust of government and the media, deep anxieties among immigrant groups and inadequate testing of Census Bureau procedures.”

He added: “It will also, of course, generate legal challenges, the details of which will be lost on the general public but will implicitly suggest that the census is controversial.”

The Justice Department made its request Dec. 12. It was disclosed last week by Pro Publica.

“This data is critical to the department’s enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting,” the formal request to the bureau reads.

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act prohibits voting practices that discriminate on the basis of race, color or ethnicity.

The letter goes on to say that the department “needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violations are alleged or suspected.”

The department made its request late in the formulation of a census questionnaire, given that the only full-scale test for the 2020 count begins in less than three months, in Providence, Rhode Island. Two other tests were canceled because of lack of money.

The administration requested an additional $187 million for census preparation in the new fiscal year budget starting Oct. 1. But that money has been held up because of an ongoing inability of Congress to reach consensus on a new spending plan.

Test of wills

The drive by the federal agency headed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, an immigration hawk, brings yet another test of wills in the White House between hardliners and forces pressing for a more moderate approach.

Hard-liners have appeared in control in recent days, with the administration demanding border wall funding and other concessions in return for signing legislation to protect young undocumented immigrants.

The Census Bureau said in a statement that it’s evaluating the Justice Department request, noting the final list of questions must be submitted to Congress by the end of March.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross “will then make a decision. Our top priority is a complete and accurate 2020 census,” the statement read.

Groups favoring restrictions on immigration praise the Justice Department effort.

Ira Mehlman, media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said states such as Texas and California with large populations of undocumented immigrants receive unfair portions of government appropriations distributed on the basis of the census count.

“It’s not just political representation, which is bad enough, but allocation of federal money,” he said.

On Thursday, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an umbrella organization representing some 200 national organizations, warned in a letter to Ross that the citizenship question would disrupt the census at a pivotal time.