Early in the Trump administration, senior officials discussed bringing back a controversial question topic that has not been included in the census for all households since 1950 鈥� U.S. citizenship status.
The policy idea became reality this March, when 鈥� against the recommendations of the Census Bureau 鈥� Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross used his authority over the census and approved plans to add the question, " "
That decision triggered what could become one of the most influential legal battles over the next decade. More than two dozen states and cities, along with other groups, have filed six lawsuits around the country against the Trump administration to get the question removed.
The first trial of the citizenship question lawsuits is expected to start Monday in New York City. It's expected to last two weeks. No matter which side wins, the district court decisions in all of these cases are likely to be appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Ross argues that the Justice Department needs responses to the citizenship question to better enforce part of the Voting Rights Act. But the plaintiffs cite Census Bureau research showing that in the current climate of stepped-up immigration enforcement and growing anti-immigrant sentiments, asking about citizenship could scare households with noncitizens from participating and undermine the accuracy of the information the census collects.
That, in turn, could taint the critical data that will be used to form the country's underlying power structures through 2030. How many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets after the 2020 head count is determined by that tally. Data from the census are used to redraw political districts at the state and local levels. They are also a guide for distributing an estimated $800 billion a year in federal tax dollars to fund schools, roads and other public institutions and services across the U.S.
How the citizenship question ended up on the census and then in court is documented in a trail of internal emails and memos released as part of the lawsuits. Since their first release in June, the Commerce Department's office of public affairs has generally declined to comment to NPR on the information contained in the documents, citing pending litigation.
"The administrative record shows that the Department of Commerce took a deep dive into the surrounding legal, policy, and program considerations prior to reinstating the citizenship question on the decennial census," Ross said in a written statement in June. "I am confident that after months of review and consideration, this administrative record proves that the return of the citizenship question to the Decennial Census is the right move that will allow our country to have the most complete and accurate census information available."
Contradictions in Ross' congressional testimony about the question, however, have led some Democratic lawmakers to call for investigations into Ross and his decision. It all comes down to why exactly the Trump administration decided to use the 2020 census to find out who living in the country is and isn't a U.S. citizen.
Here's a look back at what we know about the addition of the question to the census and the ensuing lawsuits:
January 2017: and publish that directed the Census Bureau director to "include questions to determine U.S. citizenship and immigration status on the long-form questionnaire in the decennial census." So far, the White House has not issued such an order. The American Community Survey, a Census Bureau survey that replaced the long-form census questionnaire, already includes a citizenship question. The Justice Department has relied on citizenship data from it to enforce the Voting Rights Act.
Feb. 27, 2017: Wilbur Ross as the head of the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau.
March 10, 2017: and then-White House adviser Eric Branstad to confirm that the used to determine how congressional seats and Electoral College votes are distributed among the states.
March 28, 2017: The Census Bureau sends to Congress a report of the Citizenship is not included among those topics.
April 5, 2017: , Hilary Geary Ross, about , wanting Ross to talk to someone about the census.
May 2, 2017: "I am mystified why nothing have been done in response to my months old request that we include the citizenship question," , : "We need to work with Justice to get them to request that citizenship be added back as a census question."
May 24, 2017: "The Secretary seemed ... puzzled why citizenship is not included in 2020," to Census Bureau officials. He asks "what criteria drives us to put" a citizenship question on the American Community Survey 鈥� an annual survey that about one in 38 households in the U.S. are legally required to answer 鈥� and not the 2020 census, which includes every household.
July 14, 2017: to "follow up on our telephone discussion from a few months ago." Kobach suggests wording for a citizenship question on the 2020 census that includes response options about immigration status, after noting "the problem that aliens who do not actually 'reside' in the United States are still counted for congressional apportionment purposes."
July 21, 2017: that "at the direction of Steve Bannon," he spoke with Ross "briefly on the phone" about adding a citizenship question "a few months earlier."
July 28, 2017: The acting head of the Justice Department's civil rights division, Thomas Wheeler, John Gore takes over the unit, which enforces the Voting Rights Act.
Aug. 8, 2017: "Where is the DoJ in their analysis ?" about a citizenship question. "If they still have not come to a conclusion please let me know your contact person and ." The next day, Comstock writes back: " we need to be diligent in preparing the administrative record."
Sept. 8, 2017: , Comstock details how he asked multiple federal agencies if they would request for a citizenship question to be added to the 2020 census. " given the difficulties Justice was encountering in the press at the time (the whole Comey matter)," he wrote. After reaching out to the Department of Homeland Security, Comstock was referred back to the Justice Department.
Sept. 13, 2017: , Gore asks to speak about "a DOJ-DOC issue" with Teramoto. He later connects her with Justice Department official Danielle Cutrona, : "From what John told me, it sounds like we can do whatever you all need us to do and the delay was due to a miscommunication. The AG is eager to assist."
Sept. 19, 2017:"Wendy and I spoke with the AG yesterday," Ross writes in . "Please follow up so we can resolve this issue today."
Nov. 27, 2017: "Census is about to begin translating the questions into multiple languages," . "We are out of time. Please set up a call for me tomorrow with whoever is the responsible person at Justice. We must have this resolved."
Dec. 15, 2017: Commerce Department attorney James Uthmeier emails a copy of , to the Census Bureau's Acting Director Ron Jarmin. The letter formally requests the bureau to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census to help the department better enforce Voting Rights Act protections against discrimination of racial and language minorities.
Dec. 22, 2017: In response to the Justice Department request, between the department and the Census Bureau to discuss an alternative to adding a citizenship question. Compiling existing government records about citizenship, Jarmin writes in an email, "would result in higher quality data produced at lower cost."
Dec. 29, 2017: , setting off a public relations scramble at the Census Bureau.
Jan. 19, 2018: The Census Bureau's chief scientist, John Abowd, that adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census "is very costly, harms the quality of the census count, and would use substantially less accurate citizenship status data than are available" from existing government records.
Feb. 6, 2018: that leadership at the Justice Department "do not want to meet" with the Census Bureau to discuss the department's request for a citizenship question. not to discuss alternatives to adding a citizenship question, .
Feb. 13, 2018: "None of my colleagues at AEI would speak favorably about the proposal. Is it important that the person actually be in favor of the proposal?" the , who's trying to set up calls with groups who may be supportive of the question as part of Ross' formal review of the Justice Department's request. A group of former Census Bureau directors has already spoken out against adding the citizenship question.
March 1, 2018: , Abowd recommends against combining responses to a 2020 census citizenship question with existing government records "to create a comprehensive statistical reference list of current U.S. citizens" 鈥� an option that Ross requested after reviewing the earlier memo by the Census Bureau's chief scientist.
March 16, 2018:The Census Bureau starts collecting responses in Rhode Island's Providence County for . The .
March 19, 2018: telling supporters, "The President wants the 2020 United States Census to ask people whether or not they are citizens."
March 20, 2018:" ," Ross testifies in Congress after Rep. Jos茅 Serrano, D-N.Y., asks if President Trump or anyone else at the White House directed him to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. At the same hearing before the House Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., asks, " " Ross replies, "I am not aware of any such." Months later, Meng calls for a Justice Department investigation into whether Ross provided false statements to members of Congress after the Trump administration's attorneys backtrack Ross' testimony and reveal that .
March 22, 2018:During a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, Ross testifies to Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., that the Justice Department " " for a citizenship question.
March 26, 2018: , "Is this person a citizen of the United States?" He also directs the Census Bureau to match responses to the question with existing government records on citizenship. Hours later, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra files the first lawsuit against the Trump administration to get the question removed.
March 28, 2018: In another email about a citizenship question, the Trump campaign tells its supporters, "President Trump has officially mandated that the 2020 United States Census ask people living in America whether or not they are citizens."
March 29, 2018: The Census Bureau sends to Congress, including the new citizenship question approved by Ross.
April 3, 2018: in filing a lawsuit in New York over the citizenship question.
April 11, 2018: file a lawsuit in Maryland. A group affiliated with former Attorney General Eric Holder's redistricting organization, the National Redistricting Foundation, is coordinating the lawsuit.
April 17, 2018: The city of San Jose, Calif., and Black Alliance for Just Immigration 鈥� an immigrant rights group led by Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi 鈥� file a lawsuit in California.
April 25, 2018:"It shouldn't scare people. They don't have to answer it, really," before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. That was in response to a question from Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, about worries among communities of color that the citizenship question will scare people from responding to the census. Sessions calls those concerns "overblown," noting the question is placed as the last one to be asked about each household member. , refusing to answer a census question can result in a fine. Returning an incomplete form may lead to a phone call or an in-person visit from a census worker.
May 10, 2018: in a citizenship question, Ross testifies at a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee: "Well, the Justice Department is the one who made the request of us."
May 18, 2018: during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing about why the Justice Department requested a citizenship question. "You can't answer a question as to whether you talked to your boss, who we pay?" avoids directly answering if he discussed the request with Sessions. Gore says he can't comment because the Justice Department is representing the Trump administration in the lawsuits over the question. He was a no-show at an earlier hearing he was expected to attend.
May 23, 2018: to challenge the Census Bureau's longstanding policy of including unauthorized immigrants in census numbers used to distribute congressional seats and Electoral College votes among the states.
May 31, 2018: La Uni贸n del Pueblo Entero, a Texas-based community group founded by labor activists C茅sar Ch谩vez and Dolores Huerta, leads another lawsuit filed in Maryland over the citizenship question.
June 6, 2018: The New York Immigration Coalition leads another lawsuit filed in New York over the citizenship question.
June 21, 2018: , Ross discloses that he and his staff seeded the Justice Department's request for a citizenship question. Ross reveals publicly that "soon" after he was appointed as commerce secretary, he thought adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census "could be warranted." The issue was raised by other "senior" Trump administration officials, he adds.
July 26, 2018: Furman allows the plaintiffs to argue that Ross misused his authority over the census and discriminated against immigrant communities of color by adding the citizenship question.
Aug. 17, 2018: , on the plaintiffs' claims that Ross' decision to add the citizenship question was unconstitutional and a misuse of his authority. In New York, Furman orders the Trump administration to make Gore available for questioning under oath in part because he appears to have had a role in drafting the Justice Department's request for a citizenship question.
Aug. 22, 2018: to move forward, delivering the Trump administration's fifth setback in its attempts to get the citizenship question lawsuits tossed out of courts.
Sept. 21, 2018: for the citizenship question lawsuits by Furman, who writes in his opinion that Ross' "intent and credibility are directly at issue in these cases."
Oct. 9, 2018: to investigate how Ross worked with his staff to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census and if they "meaningfully considered concerns expressed by experts at the Census Bureau."
Oct. 11, 2018: A court filing reveals that in the spring of 2017, when he also spoke with Sessions about the topic. The disclosure about Bannon 鈥� made "for the sake of completeness," according to the Trump administration's attorneys 鈥� contradicts Ross' testimony in Congress back in March, when he said he was not aware of any discussion about the issue between him or his staff and the White House.
Oct. 15, 2018:Sessions criticizes Furman's under oath about why he decided to add the citizenship question. "The words on the page don't have motive. They are either permitted or they are not," at an event organized by The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Oct. 22, 2018: The justices allow them to depose Gore, as Furman ordered. The ruling comes after multiple attempts by the Trump administration to stop both depositions.
Nov. 1, 2018:Researchers behind a nationwide study commissioned by the Census Bureau report that to the country's full participation in the 2020 census.
Nov. 2, 2018: the trial for the New York lawsuits scheduled to start on Nov. 5.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAxODQzOTgwMDEyMTcyNjI4MTAxYWQyMw004))
