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Trump administration officials have privately discussed the possibility that in the future census information may be shared with law enforcement officials, according to documents filed at the time of the investigation. A court challenge to the project of a new citizenship issue in the 2020 survey.
The topic was addressed after a Democratic legislator asked if the answers to the survey could ever be shared with law enforcement, which was strictly illegal under the federal law governing the census.
After a congressional hearing in May on the issue of citizenship, the representative Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) Asked in writing if the Department of Justice agreed with a memo issued in 2010, that the USA Patriot Act could not ignore the confidentiality of the information. the census.
In a June 12 email, ministry officials discussed how to answer Gomez's question so that the answer is open. Justice Counsel Ben Aguinaga suggested that Acting Attorney General John Gore not say "too much" in response to Gomez's question, in case this question "would come back later." for a new debate ".
[How Democrats would work to kill the census citizenship question if they win the midterms]
Confidentiality is considered a fundamental premise of the census and essential to the success of the constitutionally prescribed enumeration, which surveys every household in the country every 10 years. This confidentiality is recorded in the Census Act of 1879.
In 1954, Congress codified the rules, which state that the Commerce Department, which oversees the investigation, can not share the data with any other government agency or court. Offenders are subject to up to five years' federal imprisonment and a fine of up to $ 250,000. The law can only be changed by Congress.
The Ministry of Justice e-mail appeared in documents filed in the San Francisco Federal Court for a trial scheduled to open in January.
This seemed to leave room for reconsideration of the 2010 memo, which was published in the first decennial census after the September 11 attacks and the creation of the USA Patriot Act.
The Department of Justice has refused to comment on the e-mail or if the confidentiality of the census is open to debate. Acting Director of the Census Bureau, Ron S. Jarmin, wrote a blog about the importance of account confidentiality.
The revelation comes at a time when immigrant communities feel beleaguered and already fear participating in the census, which determines the allocation of $ 800 billion a year in federal funds as well as the allocation to Congress.
[Americans say they were less likely to fill out the census than they were 10 years ago]
Gomez's question asked if there was "a provision in the law that could require the Census to disclose confidential census data for law enforcement or national security purposes?"
Aguinaga wrote in his email to Gore: "I do not think we want to say too much there in case of a problem. . . or related issues come back later for a renewed debate. So, I just said that the department will comply with all the laws that require confidentiality. It is not clear if Gore responded to the email. Gomez's office said it received a response containing this wording months later.
Six prosecutions challenged the administration's decision to add a citizenship question to the count, stating that it would deter immigrants and their families from completing the forms and result in inaccurate and more costly accounting.
Completing the census is required by law. The cost of the count increases when enumerators have to return to households that do not respond to the forms in the first round.
Additional uncertainty as to whether their responses will be protected would likely be more of a threat to the count, say census experts.
"This could increase fears about how our administration could use census responses," said Terri Ann Lowenthal, former staff director of the House Census Monitoring Subcommittee. The Gomez question "should have been an easy opportunity for the Department of Justice to reaffirm that there is an iron wall for personal census responses."
"If the administration and the trade secretary do not fix things quickly, the entire census may be a problem," she added.
[Did Wilbur Ross conceal the truth about the 2020 Census citizenship question? A judge is determined to find out.]
While doubts about confidentiality may have a chilling effect on response rates, Thomas Wolf, Legal Counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, who filed briefs in ongoing prosecutions, said that the Department of Justice did not have the power to change the rules.
"The Census Act makes it clear that individual census responses can not leave the Department of Commerce" and that general census data can not be shared for law enforcement purposes, Wolf said. "The Department of Justice has absolutely no say in the possibility of sharing census data. [it] must follow federal laws like everyone else. "
He added that "the law can only change if Congress changes it, and I am very skeptical about the fact that a House headed by a Democrat will change them."
Instead, said Wolf, the discussion may have been an example of government officials proposing an idea to see if it is achievable. "This administration likes to test fences," he said. "This fence is an electric fence; it would be incredibly illegal.
House Democrats have promised to fight the count's threats. Gomez, who sits on the house's oversight committee and government reform, said Monday that "the new majority in the Democratic House will do everything in its power to directly address these anti-corruption efforts. Immigrants "linked to the 2020 account." These emails prove that the Trump administration uses all the tools at its disposal to defame our immigrant communities, including the 2020 census ".
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