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| Census Bureau’s Own Expert Panel Blasts Decision to Add Citizenship Question | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| A Census Bureau panel of expert advisers on Friday rebuked the Trump administration’s decision to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census, saying the move relied on “flawed logic” and posed a host of potential threats to the accuracy and confidentiality of the head count. | A Census Bureau panel of expert advisers on Friday rebuked the Trump administration’s decision to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 census, saying the move relied on “flawed logic” and posed a host of potential threats to the accuracy and confidentiality of the head count. |
| The panel, the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, said the addition of the citizenship question would depress the response to the census and stir a potentially damaging flood of misinformation about the government’s plans for the citizenship information it collects. | The panel, the Census Scientific Advisory Committee, said the addition of the citizenship question would depress the response to the census and stir a potentially damaging flood of misinformation about the government’s plans for the citizenship information it collects. |
| The objections were included in a statement to the acting director of the Census Bureau, Ron Jarmin, issued at the end of the panel’s semiannual meeting. The panel, a group of prominent demographers, economists and other experts, advises Mr. Jarmin on census preparations. | The objections were included in a statement to the acting director of the Census Bureau, Ron Jarmin, issued at the end of the panel’s semiannual meeting. The panel, a group of prominent demographers, economists and other experts, advises Mr. Jarmin on census preparations. |
| The group’s two-day meeting at the bureau’s headquarters in Suitland, Md., was punctuated by concerns and complaints, some of them anguished, about what the decision would do to the census and to the bureau itself. | The group’s two-day meeting at the bureau’s headquarters in Suitland, Md., was punctuated by concerns and complaints, some of them anguished, about what the decision would do to the census and to the bureau itself. |
| “I want to say in no uncertain terms that I think this is an absolutely awful decision,” D. Sunshine Hillygus, a Duke University political scientist and expert on census issues, said at the panel’s first day of deliberation on Thursday. “Because it is viewed as a strictly political decision, I think it doesn’t matter how much the Census Bureau says we will keep your data confidential. The Twitter commentary is about how this citizenship question is going to be used to target individuals who are not here legally.” | “I want to say in no uncertain terms that I think this is an absolutely awful decision,” D. Sunshine Hillygus, a Duke University political scientist and expert on census issues, said at the panel’s first day of deliberation on Thursday. “Because it is viewed as a strictly political decision, I think it doesn’t matter how much the Census Bureau says we will keep your data confidential. The Twitter commentary is about how this citizenship question is going to be used to target individuals who are not here legally.” |
| Professor Hillygus noted that a Twitter hashtag, #leaveitblank, already is circulating online, urging people either to refuse to answer the citizenship question or boycott the census. | Professor Hillygus noted that a Twitter hashtag, #leaveitblank, already is circulating online, urging people either to refuse to answer the citizenship question or boycott the census. |
| Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr., whose department includes the Census Bureau, ordered a question about citizenship added to the census on Monday, days before the April 1 deadline to submit a final list of questions to Congress for review. The question had been requested by the Justice Department, which said it needed more detailed citizenship data to better enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act. | Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr., whose department includes the Census Bureau, ordered a question about citizenship added to the census on Monday, days before the April 1 deadline to submit a final list of questions to Congress for review. The question had been requested by the Justice Department, which said it needed more detailed citizenship data to better enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act. |
| Many census experts and civil-liberties groups have criticized the decision, noting that the Voting Rights Act has been enforced for decades without the data the department is requesting. Many critics see the move as an extension of the White House’s hostility toward immigrants and as an attempt to reduce the 2020 population count in immigrant-rich areas that are predominantly Democratic in advance of redistricting in 2021. | Many census experts and civil-liberties groups have criticized the decision, noting that the Voting Rights Act has been enforced for decades without the data the department is requesting. Many critics see the move as an extension of the White House’s hostility toward immigrants and as an attempt to reduce the 2020 population count in immigrant-rich areas that are predominantly Democratic in advance of redistricting in 2021. |