A9
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JULY 13, 2019
Trump abandons bid to include
citizenship question on census
President instead
orders agencies
to compile data
By JILL COLVIN,
MARK SHERMAN
and ZEKE MILLER
Associated Press
AP Photo/Amr Alfi ky
Demonstrators hold placards as Rey Wences, organizer at Organized Communities Against
Deportations, addresses reporters during a news conference Thursday outside the U.S.
Citizenship and Immigration Services offi ces in Chicago.
Trump administration plans
immigration enforcement operation
Raids could come
this weekend
By SOPHIA TAREEN
and COLLEEN LONG
Associated Press
CHICAGO — The Trump
administration is moving
forward with a nationwide
immigration
enforcement
operation targeting migrant
families, despite loud oppo-
sition from Democrats and
questions over whether it’s
the best use of resources
given the crisis at the border.
The operation could hap-
pen as soon as this week-
end after being postponed
by President Donald Trump
late last month. It would pur-
sue people with fi nal depor-
tation orders, including fami-
lies whose immigration cases
were fast-tracked by judges
in 10 major cities such as
Chicago, Los Angeles, New
York and Miami.
The plan has sparked out-
rage and concern among
immigrant-rights advocates
and lawmakers.
“Our communities have
been in constant fear,” Estela
Vara, a Chicago-area orga-
nizer said Thursday at a rally
outside the city’s Immigra-
tion and Custom Enforce-
ment offi ces where some
activists chanted “Immigra-
tion Not Deportation!”
The sweep remains in
fl ux and could begin later,
according to two adminis-
tration offi cials, who were
not authorized to discuss the
matter publicly and spoke
on condition of anonym-
ity. The American Civil Lib-
erties Union preemptively
fi led a lawsuit Thursday in
an attempt to protect asylum
seekers.
Meanwhile,
activists
ramped up efforts to prepare
by bolstering know-your-
rights pocket guides, cir-
culating information about
hotlines and planning pub-
lic demonstrations. Vigils
outside of detention centers
and hundreds of other loca-
tions nationwide were set
for Friday evening, to be fol-
lowed by protests Saturday in
Miami and Chicago.
The operation is simi-
lar to ones conducted regu-
larly since 2003 that often
produce hundreds of arrests.
It is slightly unusual to tar-
get families, as opposed to
immigrants with criminal
histories, but it’s not unprec-
edented. The Obama and
Trump administrations have
targeted families in previous
operations.
This latest effort is notable
because of the politics swirl-
ing around it.
Trump announced on
Twitter last month that the
sweep would mark the begin-
ning of a push to deport mil-
lions of people who are in the
country illegally, a near-im-
possibility given the lim-
ited resources of ICE, which
makes the arrests and carries
out deportation orders.
‘OUR
COMMUNITIES
HAVE BEEN
IN CONSTANT
FEAR.’
Estela Vara | a Chicago-area
organizer who participated at a
rally outside the city’s Immigra-
tion and Custom Enforcement
offi ces where some activists
chanted ‘Immigration Not
Deportation!’
Then he abruptly canceled
the operation after a phone
call with House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi, a California
Democrat, while lawmak-
ers worked to pass a $4.6
billion border aid package.
Plus, details had leaked, and
authorities worried about the
safety of ICE offi cers.
The agency said it would
not discuss specifi cs about
enforcement operations.
“As always, ICE priori-
tizes the arrest and removal
of unlawfully present aliens
who pose a threat to national
security, public safety and
border security,” it said in a
statement.
Trump started hinting
anew in recent days that more
removals were coming. He
said last weekend they would
be starting “fairly soon.”
“Well, I don’t call them
SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
raids,” he said. “I say they
came in illegally and we’re
bringing them out legally.”
Ken Cuccinelli, the new
head of Citizenship and
Immigration Services, told
CNN on Wednesday that the
raids were “absolutely going
to happen.”
Pelosi said she hoped the
administration would recon-
sider. “Families belong
together,” she said.
Advocates in border
areas have “received word”
that up to 1,000 families
are expected to arrive at an
immigration center in Dilley,
Texas, according to attorneys
representing separated fami-
lies in a long-running lawsuit.
In court papers fi led
Thursday, the attorneys said
the government has not
responded to questions about
the operation.
The administration has
been straining to manage a
border crisis, and some offi -
cials believe fl ashy shows of
force in deporting families
would deter others migrants
from coming. But others
have criticized any move that
draws resources away from
the border at a time when
the Border Patrol is detain-
ing four times the number
of people it can hold. Also, a
watchdog report found fi lthy,
potentially dangerous condi-
tions at some stations.
Democratic Rep. Pramila
Jayapal of Washington state,
co-chair of the Congressio-
nal Progressive Caucus and a
former immigrant advocate,
accused the administration of
showing a “willingness to be
cruel at every turn.”
House Minority Leader
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, a Cal-
ifornia Republican, blamed
Pelosi for the raids, saying
she had done “nothing” since
they were delayed. “It is the
speaker who caused this
problem,” he said.
He said Trump would
have postponed the raids
again if he saw progress in
House.
Some activists said they
were gearing up for oper-
ations to start Sunday and
planned to protest. Organiz-
ers estimated a rally planned
for Saturday in Chicago
would draw around 10,000
people.
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
WASHINGTON — Just
a week after insisting that
he was “absolutely moving
forward,” President Donald
Trump abandoned his effort
to insert a citizenship ques-
tion into next year’s census.
He directed federal agen-
cies to try to compile the
information using existing
databases instead.
“It is essential that we
have a clear breakdown of
the number of citizens and
noncitizens that make up the
U.S. populations,” Trump
declared in a Rose Garden
announcement, insisting that
he was “not backing down.”
But the decision was
clearly a reversal, after the
Supreme Court blocked
his effort by disputing his
administration’s rationale
for demanding that cen-
sus respondents declare
whether or not they were cit-
izens. Trump had said last
week that he was “very seri-
ously” considering an exec-
utive order to try to force the
question. But the govern-
ment has already begun the
lengthy and expensive pro-
cess of printing the census
questionnaire without it, and
such a move would surely
have drawn an immediate
legal challenge.
Instead, Trump said
Thursday that he would
be signing an executive
order directing every fed-
eral department and agency
to provide the Commerce
Department with all records
pertaining to the number of
citizens and noncitizens in
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
President Donald Trump is joined by Commerce Secretary
Wilbur Ross as he speaks in the Rose Garden at the White
House on Thursday.
REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
69 57
Partly sunny
71 57
71 57
70 58
Clouds and sun; Periods of sun;
Mostly cloudy
nice
nice
69 58
67 56
68 56
Cloudy
A p.m. shower
possible
Showers
possible
Aberdeen
Olympia
70/57
75/59
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Thursday
Tonight’s Sky: Look for globular
cluster M3 upper right of Arc-
turus.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 69/61
Normal high/low .................. 67/53
Record high .................. 91 in 1951
Record low .................... 43 in 2008
Precipitation
Thursday ................................. Trace
Month to date ........................ 0.96”
Normal month to date ......... 0.47”
Year to date .......................... 23.83”
Normal year to date ........... 36.38”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Time
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
12:03 p.m. 6.2 5:53 a.m. -0.5
11:29 p.m. 8.4 5:29 p.m. 2.4
Cape Disappointment
11:58 a.m. 5.8 5:12 a.m. -0.6
11:09 p.m. 8.1 4:45 p.m. 2.6
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 5:37 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 9:05 p.m.
Moonrise today ............. 6:32 p.m.
Moonset today ............... 3:04 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
12:03 p.m. 6.3 5:27 a.m. -0.6
11:20 p.m. 8.6 5:08 p.m. 2.6
Warrenton
11:58 a.m. 6.6 5:37 a.m. -0.4
11:24 p.m. 8.8 5:13 p.m. 2.5
Knappa
12:40 p.m. 6.5 6:54 a.m. -0.4
none
6:30 p.m. 2.0
Depoe Bay
July 16 July 24 July 31 Aug 7
11:15 a.m. 6.0 4:42 a.m. -0.6
10:22 p.m. 8.5 4:15 p.m. 3.0
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
84/72/t
87/74/s
87/69/t
93/73/pc
95/61/pc
89/77/s
91/79/r
89/66/s
91/81/pc
88/73/s
110/90/pc
73/57/pc
91/76/s
Sun.
Hi/Lo/W
86/72/c
87/67/s
86/70/pc
89/74/c
92/62/pc
88/77/s
92/77/pc
89/66/pc
92/79/pc
87/70/s
111/90/pc
73/57/pc
91/71/s
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
78/57
Kennewick Walla Walla
89/62 Lewiston
91/62
88/65
Hermiston
The Dalles 92/64
Enterprise
Pendleton 83/52
88/61
83/62
La Grande
86/56
80/57
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Hi/Lo/W
Pullman
87/56
76/58
Salem
86/59
Yakima 88/61
Longview
69/57 Portland
80/59
Spokane
84/63
76/57
76/55
Astoria
ALMANAC
ipating would expose non-
citizen family members to
repercussions.
Dale Ho, director of the
American Civil Liberties
Union’s Voting Rights Proj-
ect, and the lawyer who
argued the Supreme Court
case, celebrated Thursday’s
announcement by the pres-
ident, saying: “Trump’s
attempt to weaponize the
census ends not with a bang
but a whimper.”
Trump said his order
would apply to every agency,
including the Department of
Homeland Security and the
Social Security Adminis-
tration. The Census Bureau
already has access to Social
Security, food stamp and
federal prison records, all
of which contain citizenship
information.
Trump, citing Census
Bureau projections, pre-
dicted that using previ-
ously available records, the
administration could deter-
mine the citizenship of 90
percent of the population “or
more.”
“Ultimately this will
allow us to have a more
complete count of citizens
than through asking the
single question alone,” he
contended.
the country.
Late Thursday, Justice
Department lawyers sent a
copy of the executive order
to the judge presiding over a
challenge to the citizenship
question in Manhattan fed-
eral court, saying they will
confer with lawyers for the
plaintiffs to see how to pro-
ceed in the case.
Trump’s order said the
Supreme Court “has now
made it impossible, as a
practical matter, to include
a citizenship question on
the 2020 decennial census
questionnaire.”
“After examining every
possible alternative, the
attorney general and the sec-
retary of commerce have
informed me that the logis-
tics and timing for carrying
out the census, combined
with delays from continuing
litigation, leave no practical
mechanism for including the
question on the 2020 decen-
nial census,” Trump said.
Trump’s efforts to add the
question on the decennial
census had drawn fury and
backlash from critics who
complained that it would
discourage participation, not
only by people living in the
country illegally, but also by
citizens who fear that partic-
Corvallis
80/56
Albany
81/57
John Day
Eugene
Bend
83/56
81/49
89/56
Ontario
99/68
Caldwell
Burns
91/53
98/66
Medford
88/59
Klamath Falls
85/48
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
86/54/pc
69/53/pc
68/58/pc
80/55/pc
66/55/pc
Sun.
Hi/Lo/W
83/51/s
66/55/pc
69/58/c
80/57/c
66/55/c
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
70/56/pc
84/58/pc
69/58/pc
83/55/pc
78/58/pc
Sun.
Hi/Lo/W
69/57/pc
84/59/pc
70/57/c
84/55/pc
79/59/c