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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 10, 2018)
January 10, 2018 The Skanner Page 7 Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Trump Justice Department Pushes for Citizenship Question on Census Administration says the reason for the controversial move is to protect civil rights he Justice Department is pushing for a question on citizenship to be add- ed to the 2020 census, a move that observers say could depress participation by im- migrants who fear that the government could use the in- formation against them. That, in turn, could have potentially large ripple effects for every- thing the once-a-decade census T “ 2020 count. Questions are usu- ally carefully field-tested, a process that can take years. “This is a recipe for sabotag- ing the census,” said Arturo Vargas, a member of the Na- tional Advisory Committee of the Census and the executive director of NALEO Education- al Fund, a Latino advocacy group. “When you start adding last-minute questions that are not tested — how will the pub- lic understand the question? 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 determines — from how con- gressional seats are distrib- uted around the country to where hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent. The DOJ made the request in a previously unreported let- ter, dated Dec. 12 and obtained by ProPublica, from DOJ of- ficial Arthur Gary to the top official at the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department. The letter argues that the DOJ needs better citizenship data to better enforce the Vot- ing Rights Act “and its import- ant protections against racial discrimination in voting.” A Census Bureau spokes- person confirmed the agency received the letter and said the “request will go through the well-established process that any potential question would go through.” The DOJ declined to com- ment and the White House did not respond to a request for comment. ‘A Recipe for Sabotaging the Census’ Observers said they feared adding a citizenship question would not only lower response rates, but also make the census more expensive and throw a wrench into the system with just two years to go before the Belief cont’d from pg 5 ings. White people who sup- port a racial hierarchy, on the other hand, respond relatively favorably to other White people who claim to be victims of an- ti-white bias — and say they’d be more willing to help those Whites out. They also might re- spond by trying to min- imize opportunities for other racial groups. For example, when White people think they’re being discrim- inated against, my col- laborators and I found they’re less inclined to support affirmative ac- How much will it suppress re- sponse rates?” The 2010 census included a handful of questions cover- ing age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, household relation- ship and owner/ renter status — but not citizenship. “People are not going to come out to be counted be- cause they’re going to be fearful the information would be used for neg- ative purposes,” said Steve Jost, a former top bureau official during the 2010 census. “This line about enforc- ing voting rights is a new and scary twist.” He noted that since the first cen- sus in 1790, the goal has been to count everyone in the country, not just citizens. There have been rumblings since the beginning of the year that the Trump administra- tion wanted to add a citizenship ques- tion policies. They say they’re also more willing to support policies that help White people, like efforts to address discrimination against Whites. It goes without saying that in a country where racial educational, em- ployment and wealth dis- parities persist, greater attention to bias against whites (and less to bias against racial minorities) would only exacerbate social inequality. This article was origi- nally published on The Conversation. The Con- versation is an indepen- dent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from aca- demic experts. tion to the census. Adding to the concerns about the 2020 count, Politico reported last month that the administration may appoint to a top job at the bureau a Repub- lican redistricting expert who wrote a book called “Redis- tricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America.” The Census Bureau’s popu- lation count determines how the 435 U.S. House seats are distributed. The law governing the cen- sus gives the commerce secre- tary, currently Wilbur Ross, the power to decide on ques- tions. They must be submitted to Congress for review two years before the census, in this case by April 2018. A census spokesperson said the agency will also release the questions publicly at that time. Political Climate Already Taking Effect A recent Census Bureau presentation shows that the political climate is already having an effect on respon- siveness to the bureau’s American Community Survey, which asks a more extensive list of questions, including on citizenship status, to about one in 38 households in the country per year. In one case, census inter- viewers reported, a respon- dent “walked out and left interviewer alone in home during citizenship ques- A 2010 Census enumerator speaks to a resident standing in a doorway. tions.” “Three years ago, [it] was so much easier to get re- tion questions,” said another spondents compared to now census interviewer. because of the government The Justice Department let- changes … and trust factors. … ter argues that including a citi- Three years ago I didn’t have problems with the immigra- See CENSUS on page 9 PHOTO COURTESY OF THE US CENSUS BUREAU by Justin Elliott ProPublica
