The 2019 census test begins in legal uncertainty: NPR

The courts have yet to decide whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

But as of Thursday, the Census Bureau is asking approximately 250,000 US households to complete questionnaires containing the question "Is this person a US citizen?"

The forms are part of a last-minute, nine-week experiment used by the federal government to determine how the public could react to census forms with the potential census question next year.

About 480,000 households in most of the United States, except Puerto Rico and remote Alaska, were randomly selected to complete one of two versions of a test census form: one with the question of citizenship, the other without.

The results, which are expected to be available this fall, will inform the office's upcoming advertising campaign on the 2020 Census and hiring draftsmen to visit households that do not respond to the census themselves. Test participants will still need to complete forms for the actual enumeration of next year.

The office typically conducts similar field tests before making changes to the census forms. However, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, has approved the addition of the question before the bureau can test it on a form with the census questions scheduled for 2020. L & # 39; lack of testing was part of the "smorgasbord" of administrative law offenses, cited by a federal judge in New York in his decision to block the project.

"There is plenty of evidence that even small changes in the order, wording, and instructions of survey questions can have significant, and often unexpected, consequences for the rate, quality, and quality of the survey. sincerity of the answers ", wrote six former directors of the Census Bureau. Letter of 2018 expressing concern about the question of citizenship.

Previously published research by the Census Bureau suggests that the issue of citizenship is likely to deter non-citizen households from taking part in the per capita count of each person living in the United States.

The bureau has denied NPR's interview request regarding what it calls the "2019 census test," first announced late last year.

But in a written statement, office spokesman Michael Cook said the test would allow the bureau to "tweak" its plans for the 2020 census.

"As the federal statistical agency, it is important to maintain a neutral testing environment in order to limit certain details regarding the 2019 census test," Cook said.

The test is taking place while waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question.

The government says it wants to include the issue to better protect the voting rights of racial minorities. But plaintiffs in one of the New York-based lawsuits on the issue argue that government officials have hidden the real reason for the issue. They allege that documents from a GOP redistributive strategist show that the administration was urged to use the issue to politically favor Republicans and non-Hispanic Whites when creating new constituencies.

In a document released on Wednesday, advocacy groups have asked the Supreme Court to postpone the publication of the decision because of the recently discovered documents.

However, and every time the High Court has decided, the office will continue to collect census responses on paper, online or by phone until August 15.

"The Census Bureau considers that the information it will reveal will be valuable," the office said in a written response to calls to postpone the test of the National Association of Elected and Appointed Latino and American Officials. of Asian origin advancing justice.

The timing of the census test may create a delicate situation that could pose a public relations problem in the office. The Supreme Court may decide that the 2020 census can not include a citizenship question, while the Census Bureau continues to ask about 240,000 households to complete census forms that test this question.

"This test is, I think, a Hail Mary pass," said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former staff director of the House Census Monitoring Subcommittee, who is now consulting on census questions.

Lowenthal, who has spoken out against the issue of citizenship, added that it is "extremely unusual" for the office to carry out this test so close to the official start of the national count. The 2020 census is expected to begin in the most remote areas of Alaska in January, and most US households will be able to start participating in mid-March.

"This tells me that the Census Bureau is extremely concerned about the potential consequences of a citizenship issue on census operations," Lowenthal said.

A national study of 2018 conducted by the office revealed that the issue was a "major obstacle" to participation in enumeration by all households in the country. This could have long-term consequences on the census figures used to determine the number of congressional seats and electoral college votes received by each state, as well as to draw new constituencies after the count. Census data also show how about $ 880 billion a year in federal funding is distributed to schools, roads and other public services.

Unlike the 2020 Census, households that do not immediately return a completed census test form will not receive an in-person visit from enumerators, although the office plans to send postcards reminder by mail.

Nevertheless, the Los Angeles Human Rights Coalition and other immigrant advocacy groups expect the test to provoke anxiety in immigrant communities.

"Honestly, many members of our community have never seen the census form or have ever completed it," says Esperanza Guevara, head of CHIRLA's census awareness campaign.

Guevara says that she and her colleagues encourage people to participate in the census, whether or not there is a question about citizenship. They point out that the federal law prohibits the Census Bureau from publishing census responses identifying individuals up to 72 years after their collection.

"There is sometimes reluctance in our community, knowing that the Trump administration is certainly a wild card in many senses and that it has never been a friend of the immigrant community," Guevara adds.