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Friday 12 July 2019

Trump abandons bid to include citizenship question on census

Continued from Front neth Prewitt, a former Cen-
sus Bureau director.
But the government has al- Trump’s administration had
ready begun the lengthy faced numerous road-
and expensive process of blocks to adding the ques-
printing the census ques- tion, beginning with the rul-
tionnaire without it, and ing by the Supreme Court
such a move would surely temporarily barring its inclu-
have drawn an immediate sion on the grounds that the
legal challenge. government’s justification
Instead, Trump said Thurs- was insufficient. Two feder-
day that he would be sign- al judges also rejected the
ing an executive order Justice Department’s plan
directing every federal to replace the legal team
department and agency fighting for inclusion.
to provide the Commerce But Trump insisted his ad-
Department with all records ministration was pushing
pertaining to the number forward anyway, publicly
of citizens and noncitizens contradicting government
in the country. lawyers and his commerce
Trump’s efforts to add the secretary, who had previ-
question on the decennial ously conceded the case
census had drawn fury and was closed, as well as the
backlash from critics who President Donald Trump, joined by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Attorney General Census Bureau, which had
complained that it was po- William Barr, participate in an event about the census and the citizenship question in the Rose started the process of print-
litical, meant to discourage Garden at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 11, 2019. ing the 2020 questionnaire
participation, not only by Associated Press without the controversial
people living in the country case, celebrated Thurs- Social Security Administra- munities, making the task query after the Supreme
illegally but also by citizens day’s announcement tion. of an accurate count even Court decision.
who fear that participating by the president, saying: The Census Bureau already harder. As he has many times be-
would expose noncitizen “Trump’s attempt to wea- has access to Social Securi- “The damage has already fore, Trump exploded the
family members to reper- ponize the census ends not ty, food stamp and federal been done,” said Lizette situation with a tweet, call-
cussions. with a bang but a whim- prison records, all of which Escobedo of the National ing reports that the fight
Dale Ho, director of the per.” contain citizenship informa- Association of Latino Elect- was over “FAKE!”
American Civil Liberties Trump said his order would tion. ed and Appointed Officials A week of speculation
Union’s Voting Rights Proj- apply to every agency, in- Trump, citing Census Bu- Educational Fund. about the administration’s
ect, and the lawyer who cluding the Department of reau projections, predicted The Census Bureau had plans and renewed court
argued the Supreme Court Homeland Security and the that using previously avail- stressed repeatedly that it battles ensued as Trump
able records, the adminis- could produce better citi- threw out ideas, includ-
tration could determine the zenship data without add- ing suggesting last week
citizenship of 90 percent of ing the question. that officials might be able
the population “or more.” In fact, the bureau had to add an addendum to
“Ultimately this will allow recommended combining the questionnaire with the
us to have a more com- information from the an- question after it was print-
plete count of citizens than nual American Community ed. And he toyed with the
through asking the single Survey with records held by idea of halting the constitu-
question alone,” he con- other federal agencies that tionally mandated survey
tended. already include citizenship entirely while the court bat-
FROM 6-7PM But it is still unclear what records. tle played out.
Trump intends to do with “This would result in higher Attorney General William
the citizenship informa- quality data produced at Barr, however, said that the
tion. Federal law prohibits lower cost,” deputy Census government had no inter-
the use of census informa- Bureau Director Ron Jarmin est in delaying the count
tion to identify individuals, had written in a December and that, while he was
though that restriction has 2017 email to a Justice De- confident the census ques-
been breached in the past. partment official. tion would have eventually
At one point, Trump sug- But Commerce Secretary survived legal review, the
gested it could help states Wilbur Ross, who oversees process would have taken
that “may want to draw the Census Bureau, ulti- too long to work its way
state and local legislative mately rejected that ap- through the courts.
districts based upon the proach and ordered the Trump had offered multiple
voter-eligible population.” citizenship question be explanations for why he
That would mark a change added to the census. believed the question was
from how districts are The American Community necessary to include in the
drawn currently, based on Survey, which polls 3.5 mil- once-a-decade popula-
the entire population, and lion U.S. households ev- tion count that determines
could increase Republican ery year, already includes the allocation of seats in
political power. questions about respon- the House of Representa-
Civil rights groups said the dents’ citizenship. tives for the next 10 years
president’s efforts had al- “It’s a retreat back to what and the distribution of
ready sown fear and dis- he should have done from some $675 billion in federal
cord in vulnerable com- the beginning,” said Ken- spending.q