Release of Census Numbers Starts Florida’s Redistricting Process

Florida State Capitol

With Florida’s gubernatorial race only a few months in, the political rhetoric is increasing and pressure is mounting on Republican and Democratic sides of the aisle. For the Democrats, they will be attempting to unseat current Gov. Ron DeSantis and current Sen. Marco Rubio.

For Republicans, the pressure is mounting to increase their already dominant presence in Florida’s statewide offices and state legislature. However, this upcoming legislative session will also see the Republican-controlled State House and Senate redrawing Florida’s congressional seats.

Read the full story

Commentary: Citizen, Legal Resident and Illegal Alien Populations Will Still be Determined Under 2020 Census via Trump Executive Order

by Robert Romano   Under a July 11 executive order, President Donald Trump is mandating federal departments and agencies to provide records to the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Census Bureau to compile an accurate counting of citizen, legal resident and illegal alien populations for the 2020 Census — but without a citizenship question on the Census form for households to fill out. Instead, the Trump executive order requires “All agencies shall promptly provide the Department [of Commerce] the maximum assistance permissible, consistent with law, in determining the number of citizens, non‑citizens, and illegal aliens in the country, including by providing any access that the Department may request to administrative records that may be useful in accomplishing that objective.” In addition, the order specifically requires the following records to be furnished to the Census: “National-level file of Lawful Permanent Residents, Naturalizations” from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, “F1 & M1 Nonimmigrant Visas” from DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, “National-level file of Customs and Border Arrival/Departure transaction data” from DHS, “Refugee and Asylum visas” from DHS and Department of State, Worldwide Refugee and Asylum Processing System, “National-level passport application data”…

Read the full story

Trump Did Exactly What Opponents of the Census Citizenship Question Said He Should Do

by Kevin Daley   President Donald Trump’s executive order on citizenship data collection lays out a plan that hostile judges and opponents of the census citizenship question urged the government to follow from the start of the legal fight. Indeed, the steps outlined in Thursday’s order were previously repudiated by the president’s own senior aides and lawyers. “This is brutal,” an administration official told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Democrats are cheering now and it was a totally winnable issue the timid lawyers fumbled.” Thursday’s executive order directs government entities to assist the Commerce Department in calculating the number of citizens and non-citizens present in the country. For example, the order requires the State Department to make passport application data available to Commerce officials. The Census Bureau urged Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to follow that very plan as he contemplated adding a citizenship question to the census form. Career officials at the Bureau said that approach would yield more precise results than responses to a question on the census form. Ross rejected the idea in a March 2018 decision memo, saying “administrative records alone … would provide an incomplete picture.” After the 2010 census, the Bureau was able to match…

Read the full story

Over Half of Hispanic Voters Support Citizenship Question on Census

by Carmel Kookogey   A poll released earlier this month includes a finding that may surprise those who say adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census will result in minority communities not being properly counted. Among the Hispanic registered voters polled in the survey sample for Harvard University’s latest national monthly public policy poll, 55% say they are in favor of adding a question about whether a census respondent is a citizen to the 2020 census. Additionally, the poll, released by the Harvard’s Center for American Political Studies and the Harris Poll, found 67% of all registered U.S. voters say the census should include a citizenship question. There were reports Thursday that President Donald Trump planned to announce an executive order to include a citizenship question on the census. Trump added to the speculation with a tweet: The White House will be hosting a very big and very important Social Media Summit today. Would I have become President without Social Media? Yes (probably)! At its conclusion, we will all go to the beautiful Rose Garden for a News Conference on the Census and Citizenship. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2019 Mike Gonzalez, senior fellow at the Allison…

Read the full story

Commentary: Put the Citizenship Question on the Census

by CHQ Staff   After a Supreme Court majority led by Chief Justice Roberts flubbed the ruling on the Democrats’ lawfare attack on including the citizenship question on the census Attorney General William Barr said Monday he sees a way to legally require 2020 census respondents to declare whether or not they are citizens. In an interview with the Associated Press, Barr said the Trump administration will take action in the coming days that he believes will allow the government to add the controversial census query. Barr would not detail the plans, though a senior official said President Donald Trump is expected to issue a memorandum to the Commerce Department instructing it to include the question on census forms. To that end the Justice Department is replacing the legal team that has been pursuing Trump’s efforts, putting in place a new team consisting of both career and politically appointed attorneys. The new team, named in court papers, includes Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Morrell, a former Trump White House lawyer and law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas; Christopher Bates, who previously worked for Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, and four career Justice Department attorneys, Glenn Girdharry, Colin Kisor, Christopher…

Read the full story

Trump Will Push for Census Citizenship Question

by Kevin Daley   One day after senior officials publicly abandoned their ambitions to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census form, the Trump administration abruptly reversed course and told a federal judge it would continue its legal fight. Though government lawyers and census officials said the question would be excluded, President Donald Trump said by tweet Wednesday morning that his administration would press the issue. “We at the Department of Justice have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward, consistent with the Supreme Court’s decision, that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census,” assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt told a federal judge in Maryland. Government lawyers seemed bewildered when the Maryland judge asked them about the government’s rapidly evolving position. “The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the president’s position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and your honor,” said government lawyer Josh Gardner. “I do not have a deeper understanding of what that means at this juncture other than what the president has tweeted. But, obviously, as you can imagine, I am doing my absolute best to figure out what’s going on.” “What I told…

Read the full story

Trump Administration Backs Off Census Citizenship Question After Supreme Court Defeat

by Kevin Daley   The Trump administration will not include a citizenship question on the 2020 census form, the Justice Department said Tuesday. The decision comes after the Supreme Court found Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross concealed his reasons for adding the citizenship question and cleared the way for further proceedings. The Commerce Department supervises the Census Bureau. “The decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question,” a Justice Department lawyer wrote in an email shared on Twitter. “The printer has been instructed to begin the printing process.” A Department spokesperson confirmed the government’s plans to the Daily Caller News Foundation. The case proceeded through the federal courts on an expedited basis due to time constraints. Government lawyers said the Census Bureau needed to finalize the questionnaire by July 1 to ensure timely printing and distribution. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in an accelerated procedural posture given the press of time. However, some census officials suggested the government could delay printing until October, raising the prospect that the government could ultimately add the citizenship question if it prevailed in another round of litigation. President Donald Trump suggested he would delay the…

Read the full story

Citizenship Question Used on Census for 175 Years, GOP Report Shows

by Rachel del Guidice   A new report from House Republicans shows a citizenship question appeared on the U.S. census in one form or another for nearly 175 years, and argues that its addition to the 2020 census should not be controversial despite Democrats’ objections. “Every decennial census from 1820 to 1950 inquired about citizenship,” the minority staff report released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform says, adding: From 1970 to 2000, the long-form census—sent to a segment of the population—inquired about citizenship. Since 2005, the Census Bureau has asked 3.5 million Americans about their citizenship every year. Those census appearances cover almost 175 of the 229 years since the first U.S. census in 1790. “This report analyzes the history of the citizenship question and demonstrates that Democrats’ efforts to sow fear and controversy around its reinstatement are without any merit beyond scoring political points,” the minority committee staff says in a press release. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, ranking member on the committee, authorized release of the nine-page report and appendix. Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy, said 1950 was the last time the government asked the citizenship question…

Read the full story