Justice dept move on Census sparks row

WASHINGTON, DC — The Justice Department has asked the Census Bureau to begin collecting information about US citizenship from its respondents, a move that civil rights organizations say will lead to a vast undercount of minority populations who will not answer the survey because of deportation concerns.

The US Census has not included a question regarding citizenship since 1950. Steve Jost, a former top bureau official during the 2010 Census, has said that since the first Census in 1790, the goal has been to count everyone in the country, not just citizens.

“People are not going to come out to be counted because they’re going to be fearful the information would be used for negative purposes,” he said.

Long-time civil rights activist Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, had decried the missive from the Justice Department in a press statement released last month.

“Some in the administration are trying to jeopardize the accuracy of the 2020 Census in every state and every community by deterring many people from responding, making the data collected in this crucial once-a-decade operation less accurate and useful for all of us,” stated Gupta, who is Indian American.

“The Justice Department’s untimely and unnecessary request to the US Census Bureau to add a question to the 2020 Census would destroy any chance for an accurate count, discard years of careful research, and increase costs significantly,” she said.

Gupta noted that the Census Bureau would have inadequate time to test the new question before the 2020 Census count begins. “Robust testing for new questions in a Census-like environment is essential, especially given the probable chilling effect of adding this particular citizenship question to the form,” said Gupta, adding that the Bureau also lacks time to prepare a new form.