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A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 24 OcTOber 2019

Most states not giving driver's license data to Washington

By MIKE SCHNEIDER color," said Dale Ho, direc-
Associated Press tor of the ACLU's Voting
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — An Rights Project. The Census
effort by the U.S. Census Bu- Bureau said in its requests
reau to collect state driver's that the driver's license re-
license records as part of cords would be used, in
President Donald Trump's part, to help build a statis-
order to gather citizenship tical model for calculating
information has been a the number of citizens and
bust so far. noncitizens in the U.S.
As of Wednesday, the Even though the president's
vast majority of state mo- order requires collecting
tor vehicle agencies had the citizenship information,
not agreed to share their Census Bureau officials are
records with the bureau, concerned that it could
according to an Associ- hinder efforts to get people
ated Press survey of the 50 to participate in the 2020
states. The effort over the census. The bureau's own
past couple of months has research showed adding a
alarmed civil rights groups, citizenship question to the
which see it as part of a 2020 questionnaire would
backdoor move by the have reduced participa-
Trump administration to re- tion, making for a less ac-
duce the political power of curate count.
minorities. Civil rights groups say driv-
In August, the bureau be- er's license records do a
gan requesting five years' A Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles drivers license service center is shown, Tuesday, poor job of showing if a
Oct. 8, 2019, in Hialeah, Fla.
worth of driver's license Associated Press person is a citizen.
records, promising the in- They point to what hap-
formation would be kept tabase doesn't belong to whether the requested in- certificate that would re- pened earlier this year
confidential. The effort be- us. It belongs to the people formation is eligible for re- flect citizenship or require when Texas' election chief
gan after the U.S. Supreme who it pertains to," Maine lease." that recipients be either gave prosecutors a list of
Court rejected the Trump's Secretary of State Matthew Utah officials turned down citizens or in the U.S. legally. 95,000 potential noncitizens
administration plan to add Dunlap said. "It's not ours to the request because state The American Civil Liber- on the state's voter rolls. The
a citizenship question to give away." law says personal data can ties Union has urged states list was drawn up with the
the 2020 census, and the Two of the biggest states, be shared only for public to turn the Census Bureau help of motor vehicle re-
president instead ordered California and New York, safety reasons, said Marissa down. cords. But it turned out that
citizenship data compiled haven't received requests Cote, a spokeswoman for The ACLU and other civil many of those people had
through federal and state yet. Three more of the top the Department of Public rights groups say the re- become citizens before
administrative records. five most populous states — Safety in the Republican- quests are part of an over- casting their ballots.
At least 13 states have re- Texas, Florida and Pennsyl- leaning state. all strategy by the Trump The battle over whether
fused to share the driver's vania — are deciding how Democratic-leaning Ne- administration to encour- citizen-only counts can be
license data, 17 are still de- to respond. vada also declined. age states to use counts of used for congressional re-
ciding what to do, and 17 Census Bureau officials had "We value our residents' citizens only, as opposed apportionment or redistrict-
haven't yet received a re- no immediate comment. privacy and hesitate to re- to total population, when ing at the state and local
quest, according to the AP Many states got calls or lease records in bulk," said redrawing state and local levels is being waged in
survey. Three states didn't emails similar to one from Kevin Malone, a spokes- electoral districts. Such a federal courtrooms in Ala-
respond to multiple AP a Census Bureau official man for the motor vehicle move could make districts bama and Maryland.
queries. asking an Arkansas Driver agency. older, whiter and more Re- It has been longstand-
Republican and Demo- Services official if she had States that haven't decid- publican. ing practice in the U.S. to
cratic states alike have said time to discuss the bureau's ed how to respond said "This endeavor appears to include immigrants living
no, citing privacy concerns "new and exciting project." they were researching the be part of a scheme mo- in the country illegally in
and prohibitions in state Scott Hardin, a spokesman legal and privacy implica- tivated by an unconstitu- census counts, which are
law. for the Arkansas agency, tions. In issuing driver's li- tional discriminatory pur- also used to allocate bil-
"Philosophically, we believe said: "We are currently censes, most states require pose to dilute the political lions of dollars in federal
the information in the da- working to determine documents such as a birth power of communities of spending.q