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U.S. NEWS Thursday 31 december 2020

Census Bureau to miss deadline, jeopardizing Trump plan

By MIKE SCHNEIDER vealed how it plans to de- happened while Trump
Associated Press termine who is in the coun- was still in office, and they
The Census Bureau plans to try illegally since the Su- said it would cause minori-
announce it will miss a year- preme Court last year pro- ties to be undercounted.
end deadline for handing hibited a citizenship ques- They also worried that the
in numbers used for divvy- tion from being added to shortened field operations
ing up congressional seats, the census questionnaire. and date processing would
a delay that could under- After the pandemic caused jeopardize the count’s ac-
mine President Donald the Census Bureau to sus- curacy and completeness.
Trump’s efforts to exclude pend field operation in the Bureau statisticians have
people in the country ille- spring, as well as caused hir- been given only half the
gally from the count if the ing shortages, the statistical time originally planned to
figures aren’t turned in be- agency asked Congress for crunch the numbers.
fore President-elect Joe extensions, including one Having a deadline for turn-
Biden takes office. that would push the dead- ing in the apportionment
It will be the first time that U.S. Census Director Steven Dillingham departs a census news line for handing in the ap- numbers is less than a cen-
the Dec. 31 target date is conference to urge Arizonans to participate in the nation’s portionment numbers from tury old — a byproduct of
missed since the deadline once-a-decade population count Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020, in the end of the year to next a Republican-controlled
was implemented more Phoenix. Associated Press spring. At the time, Trump Congress’ refusal to reap-
than four decades ago by said, “This is called an act portion after the 1920 cen-
Congress. A census official An influential GOP adviser to send the numbers to of God. This is called a situ- sus, out of fears it would
who was not authorized to had advocated excluding Congress in early January. ation that has to be. They shift political power from
speak publicly on the mat- them from the apportion- The Commerce Depart- have to give it.” rural areas to cities where
ter confirmed the delay to ment process in order to ment oversees the Census The request passed the immigrants and others
the Associated Press on advantage Republicans Bureau, which conducts Democratic-controlled had settled. For the first 14
Wednesday. and non-Hispanic whites. the once-a-decade head House but didn’t go any- censuses of the nation’s 24
Internal documents ob- “The delay suggests that count of every U.S. resident. where in the Republican- head counts, the U.S. man-
tained earlier this month by the census bureau needs Besides deciding how controlled Senate after aged without a deadline,
the House Committee on more time to ensure the many House seats each Trump issued his order. said Margo Anderson, a
Oversight and Reform show accuracy of census num- state gets, the census is A coalition of municipali- historian at the University of
that Census Bureau officials bers for all states,” said Terri used for determining how ties and advocacy groups Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
don’t see the apportion- Ann Lowenthal, a former $1.5 trillion in federal fund- sued the Trump administra- “It has not been a very
ment numbers being ready congressional staffer who ing is distributed each year. tion after it changed the controversial issue until this
until days after Biden is in- specializes in census issues. Trump’s July order on ap- schedule once again to year, the year of a pan-
augurated on Jan. 20. Under the law, the Com- portionment was chal- shorten census field opera- demic and the Trump ad-
Once in office, Biden could merce Department must lenged in more than a half tions by a month and return ministration flip-flopping on
rescind Trump’s presiden- hand in to the president dozen lawsuits around the to the Dec. 31 deadline for its goals and its efforts to
tial memorandum directing the population figures from U.S., but the Supreme Court handing in the apportion- take the undocumented
the Census Bureau to ex- the 2020 census that de- ruled earlier this month that ment numbers. The plain- out of the apportionment
clude people in the country termine how many seats in any challenge was prema- tiffs argued the count was count,” Anderson said.
illegally from numbers used Congress each state gets ture, allowing the plan to shortened by the Com- “They are still trying to wres-
for divvying up congressio- by the end of the year. The move forward. The Census merce Department so that tle the numbers into some-
nal seats among the states. president then is required Bureau hasn’t publicly re- census data-crunching thing that looks right.”q

U.S. sanctions Venezuelan judge for conviction of oil managers

MIAMI (AP) — The Trump collateral. Steven T. Mnuchin.
administration has imposed The so-called Citgo 6, “The United States remains
sanctions on the Venezu- all but one a U.S. citizen, committed to protecting its
elan judge and prosecutor were finally convicted last citizens and targeting those
behind the conviction on month and sentenced to who contribute to the ille-
corruption charges of six between 8 and 13 years gitimate Maduro regime’s
American oil executives. in prison. President Nicolás usurpation of power in Ven-
The six employees of Hous- Maduro has accused them ezuela.”
ton-based Citgo were of “treason.” The six men are Tomeu Va-
lured to Caracas just be- Presiding over the trial were dell, José Luis Zambrano,
fore Thanksgiving in 2017 Judge Lorena Cornielles Alirio Zambrano, Jorge To-
on the pretense of attend- and prosecutor Ramon ledo, Gustavo Cardenas
ing a business meeting. Torres, who as a result of and José Pereira.
Once there, they were Wednesday’s action will be “We just spent a fourth
hauled away from the blocked from doing busi- Christmas without our
headquarters of Citgo’s ness in the U.S. and have loved one, Tomeu,” the
parent company, state- any bank accounts or Vadell family said in a
run oil company PDVSA, property there seized. statement. “It’s sad to see
by heavily armed, masked “The unjust detention and more suffering come of all
security forces., accused of sentencing of these six U.S. this, but these sanctions This undated file photo posted on Twitter on June 18, 2020 by
promoting a never-execut- persons further demon- are in direct consequence Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, shows CITGO oil
executives Jose Angel Pereira, from left to right, Gustavo Carde-
ed proposal to refinance strates how corruption and of the judge and prosecu- nas, Jorge Toledo, Jose Luis Zambrano, Tomeu Vadell and Alirio
some $4 billion in Citgo abuse of power are deeply tor condemning innocent Jose Zambrano, standing outside the Bolivarian National Intel-
bonds by offering a 50% embedded in Venezuela’s men and prolonging their ligence Service, in Caracas, Venezuela.
stake in the company as institutions,” said Secretary hostage-taking.”q Associated Press