Civics: The US Census, Citizenship and Congressional Seats
One of their objectives is a renewed effort to add a citizenship question: their appointees at the bureau have created a draft memo, which I have seen, that reads: “Application of this rule would exclude illegal aliens and other groups of foreign citizens from the population count for congressional apportionment.”
A second — less obvious — battle is around privacy. Back in 1954, Congress passed a bill which includes a “Title 13” law that prevents any census publication “whereby the data furnished by any particular establishment or individual under this title can be identified”.
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Some social scientists — including those on the left — are uneasy about “fuzzing”. However, Maga groups are very critical. The Center for Renewing America, an organisation created by Russell Vought, a top Trump adviser and official, for example, argues that “the 2020 Census was the most inaccurate and unreliable in modern American history” — because of “fuzzing”. “Fourteen states had statistically significant overcounts or undercounts, resulting in at least six seats in the House of Representatives being illegitimately awarded to Democrats.”
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There is no easy solution. And while many Democrats argue that Americans need to discuss and measure race to tackle inequities, this is not the view of census leaders now. “Residence . . . [and] allegiance should be colorblind and should not depend on or be distorted in any way by any immaterial personal characteristics, such as race,” the draft memo notes.
