The confidentiality of responses to the US census could be the subject of a "renewed debate": NPR

A postcard from the US Census Bureau reminds recipients that the law requires responding to the census.

Claire Harbage / NPR

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Claire Harbage / NPR

A postcard from the US Census Bureau reminds recipients that the law requires responding to the census.

Claire Harbage / NPR

The Department of Justice has raised the possibility that the federal law protecting the confidentiality of responses to the US census may be reconsidered, indicates an internal email from the administration of Trump.

Sharing census information with law enforcement officials and national security officials could "come back later for a renewed debate," a former Justice Department official suggested in an e-mail discussing from a memo dating from the Obama period issued by the ministry's legal counsel office.

The email, first reported by NPR on November 17th, submitted last Friday to the US District Court of the Northern District of California by Andrew Case, a lawyer with Manatt, Phelps & Phillips. The law firm, along with the committee of civil rights lawyers under the law and the public council, represents the plaintiffs in one of the six lawsuits relating to the citizenship issue added by the Trump administration at the 2020 census.

Last week, the Supreme Court decided to weigh all its weight in the legal battle. Judges are expected to hear argument on a dispute over evidence in February.

"I do not think we want to say too much"

MP Jimmy Gomez – a California Democrat who sits on the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform – asked a follow-up question after Acting Chief of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, John Gore , appeared at a congressional hearing in May. Gomez has asked for a written response on whether there are any laws that may require the Census Bureau "to disclose confidential census data for the purpose of law enforcement or to national security ".

The legislator also questioned whether the Department of Justice under the Trump administration was in agreement with the opinion of the OLL rendered by the Obama administration. This 2010 memo dealt with how the Patriot Act, promulgated after the September 11 terrorist attacks, could affect the coverage of the Census Act. These protections prohibit the Secretary of Commerce, who oversees the Census Bureau, from publishing census information identifying persons for non-statistical purposes or outside the Department of Commerce, including the office.

"We have not identified any provision of the PATRIOT law requiring the secretary to disclose such protected information," wrote in his opinion Jeannie Rhee, former Deputy Attorney General.

In his June 12 email, Ben Aguiñaga, a former Justice Department lawyer who was Gore's chief of staff at the time, spoke of a draft response to Gomez's question. Aguiñaga told his "boss" that the answer "does not answer the question directly".

"I do not think we wanted to say too much in case the issues addressed in the opinion of the OLC or related issues would be raised later for a renewed debate," wrote Aguiñaga.

The final response provided by Gore on behalf of the Department of Justice stated: "No one should be afraid to answer the census questionnaire or a citizenship question, if it is actually included. undertakes to respect laws protecting the confidentiality and non-disclosure of these answers ".

"Well-founded" privacy issues

In an email, Kelly Laco, spokesperson, said that the Justice Department had refused to answer NPR's questions regarding Aguiñaga's email. The department also did not specify whether legislation could require the Census Bureau to disclose information for law enforcement or national security purposes.

Aguiñaga, who has left the Ministry of Justice and is currently a Judicial Assistant to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito, has not responded to requests for comment.

The Census Bureau and the Commerce Department emphasized that agencies are committed to protecting information collected by the office. Under federal law, every household in the country must submit a response every ten years for the enumeration of each person living in the United States under the Constitution.

Although the office can communicate to the public information about specific demographic groups at a level as detailed as that of a neighborhood, it is illegal under federal law to share census information identifying people up to the date of the census. To 72 years after their collection.

"Title 13 [of the U.S. Code] makes it very clear that the data we collect can only be used for statistical purposes and can not be shared for non-statistical purposes – including law enforcement, "said the director by interim office, Ron Jarmin, in a blog post in May.

Plaintiffs' lawyers in one of California's lawsuits – the city of San Jose, California, and the Black Alliance for Fair Immigration (BAJI) – quote however the ministry's e-mail of Justice as evidence of their clients' fears about how the federal government could use census responses.

"Despite public statements that the Bureau and Commerce will continue to respect the confidentiality responses of citizenship information, the DOJ has privately admitted that census responses to other agencies (. ..) could "come back later for a new debate" " plaintiffs' lawyers wrote in a folder. "Such statements confirm that BAJI members' privacy concerns are well-founded."

"There is no debate"

Many civil rights groups and immigrant rights advocates have expressed concerns about the Ministry of Justice's e-mail. They fear that e-mail revelations will further discourage households of unauthorized immigrants and other non-citizens – many of whom were already wary of the new citizenship issue – from participating in the e-mail. next national count.

"There is no debate on the desirability of protecting census information – the confidentiality of the census is protected by law," said Vanita Gupta in a written statement. Gupta is President and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and Former Acting Chief from the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice under President Obama. "The failure of the Ministry of Justice to confirm this guarantee is a source of concern," she added.

Gomez and other Democratic lawmakers, including Elijah Cummings representatives from Maryland and Carolyn Maloney from New York, are preparing to open further investigations on Trump administration talks on the 2020 census. , including the new question of citizenship.

"These emails prove that the Trump administration is using all the tools at its disposal to slander our immigrant communities, including the 2020 census," Gomez said in a statement. "The new majority of the Democratic House will do everything in its power to directly address these anti-immigrant efforts."