Tag: citizenship question

Trump weighs ousting Commerce chief Wilbur Ross after census defeat

Some White House officials expect the Cabinet secretary, who has known the president for years, to depart as soon as this summer.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has told aides and allies that he is considering removing Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross after a stinging Supreme Court defeat on adding a citizenship question to the census, according to multiple people familiar with the conversations.

While Trump has previously expressed frustration with Ross, 81, in particular over failed trade negotiations, Ross’ long personal relationship with the president has allowed him to keep his job. And after the departure of Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, the Cabinet’s only Hispanic who resigned Friday amid questions about his role in a controversial 2008 plea agreement with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Ross may yet receive another reprieve.

But some White House officials expect Ross to be the next Cabinet secretary to depart, possibly as soon as this summer, according to advisers and officials.

View the complete July 15 article by Hans Nichols, Kayla Tausche, CNBC, and Hallie Jackson on the NBC News website here.

Trump drops census effort, announces new plan to ‘count’ noncitizens

‘The 2020 reelect is a big factor in this battle for Trump,’ GOP strategist says

President Donald Trump lost a battle Thursday when he dropped his bid to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, but by reviving the effort in dramatic fashion he amassed more ammunition for his coming reelection campaign.

During an unrelated social media forum event at the White House, Trump criticized federal judges and the Supreme Court for blocking his attempt to add the question, calling it a “left-wing” effort to erode rights. And he teased a “solution.” Once in the Rose Garden to address the citizenship matter, he declared, “we are not backing down.”

“We will defend the right of the American people to know the full facts about the population, size of citizens and noncitizens in America,” he said. “Knowing this information is vital to formulating sound public policy.”

View the complete July 11 article by John T. Bennett on The Roll Call website here.

Trump increasingly boxed in on census citizenship question

The Hill logoPresident Trump looks to be increasingly boxed in on his effort to add a controversial citizenship question to the 2020 census.

Judges have repeatedly ruled against the Trump administration on the question since officials first announced last year that it would be included in the next decennial population survey.

But that hasn’t stopped the president from doubling down on the issue, even as census materials are being printed without the controversial question.

View the complete July 10 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Congress Refuses To Spend Millions For Trump’s Revision Of Census Forms

The Democratic congressman who oversees funding for the Census Bureau said on Tuesday that he will block Trump from wasting millions of dollars to reprint the 2020 census survey in order to rig it for Republicans.

Trump lost a Supreme Court case challenging his attempt to insert a question about citizenship into the census, which would undercount millions of black and Latino residents and unduly benefit the Republican Party. Despite the ruling — and even though the printing process on the census forms has already begun — Trump has continued pushing for the question to be included.

“It seems like the Trump Administration will stop at nothing in its efforts to undermine the completion of a fair and accurate 2020 Census,” Rep. José E. Serrano (D-NY) said in a statement.

View the complete July 9 article by Oliver Willis on the National Memo website here.

Kellyanne Conway’s flushable claims about the census citizenship question

Washington Post logo“Why can’t we just ask the question the way it was asked for 50 years before the Obama administration yanked it out of there? We’ve been asking questions like this — the American Community Survey every fifth year asks a similar question. And think of all the questions that nobody complains are included in our U.S. Census every 10 years that include a far, far, far smaller number of Americans or, I would argue, are much more intrusive, invasive and expansive. We’re asking people how many toilets in your house, and you don’t want to know who’s using them? It’s absolutely ridiculous, and this is why the president is fighting for its inclusion.”

— White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, in an interview on “Fox and Friends,” July 9, 2019

Conway, a seasoned pollster, got a lot wrong in this defense of President Trump’s plan to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.

The Supreme Court last month blocked administration officials from adding the question to the census form. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the court that Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross — who oversees the Census Bureau and approved the citizenship question — violated a federal law that required him to disclose the real reason for the change. (For more on that, read our previous fact checks here and here.)

At first, the Trump administration responded to the court decision by dropping its plans. Then the Commerce and Justice departments reversed course and began exploring whether they could insert the citizenship question while complying with Roberts’s ruling.

View the complete July 10 article by Salvador Rizzo on The Washington Post website here.

Judge rejects Justice Dept request to pull lawyers from census case

The Hill logoA federal judge in New York on Tuesday blocked the Department of Justice (DOJ) from changing its entire legal team handling a case on the census citizenship question in federal court in the state.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman found that DOJ’s motion did not address a procedural rule requiring them to provide a reason for the attorneys’ withdrawal from the case.

He wrote that the department’s filing offers “no reasons, let alone ‘satisfactory reasons,’ for the substitution of counsel.”

View the complete July 9 article by Jacqueline Thomsen on The Hill website here.

Barr Says Legal Path to Census Citizenship Question Exists, but He Gives No Details

New York Times logoEDGEFIELD, S.C. — President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr began working to find a way to place a citizenship question on the 2020 census just after the Supreme Court blocked its inclusion last month, Mr. Barr said on Monday, adding that he believes that the administration can find a legal path to incorporating the question.

“The president is right on the legal grounds. I felt the Supreme Court decision was wrong, but it also made clear that the question was a perfectly legal question to ask, but the record had to be clarified,” Mr. Barr said in an interview. He was referring to the ruling that left open the possibility that the citizenship question could be added to the census if the administration came up with a better rationale for it.

“It makes a lot of sense for the president to see if it’s possible that we could clarify the record in time to add the question,” Mr. Barr added.

View the complete July 8 article by Katie Benner on The New York Times website here.

House will vote ‘soon’ to hold Barr, Ross in criminal contempt over citizenship question

Pelosi announces plans for full House vote in dear colleague letter, also outlining legislative steps to protect migrants

The House will “soon” vote to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary William Ross in contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas for documents explaining the administration’s rationale for wanting to add a citizenship question to the census, Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a “Dear Colleague” letter on Monday.

The Oversight and Reform Committee last month approved a contempt resolution against Barr and Ross that included language to refer the matter to the U.S. attorney in Washington for possible criminal charges, as well as authorize the pursuit of a lawsuit.

The Justice and Commerce departments have provided the Oversight Committee with some documents on the citizenship question while withholding others over claims of executive privilege.

View the complete July 8 article by Lindsey McPherson on The Roll Call website here.

Pelosi: Census citizenship question is effort to ‘make America white again’

The Hill logoSpeaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) argued Monday that President Trump‘s push to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census is an effort to “make America white again” in an adaptation of his campaign slogan.

“This is about keeping — you know his hat — make America white again,” Pelosi said at an event in San Francisco about election security legislation, referring to the red “Make America Great Again” hats that are popular among Trump supporters. 

Pelosi, like other critics of adding the citizenship question to the 2020 census, argued that it could result in racial minorities being undercounted so that legislative maps can be drawn more favorably for Republicans.

View the complete July 8 article by Cristina Marcos on The Hill website here.

Despite Supreme Court Ruling, Trump Still Aims For Citizenship Query In Census

President Donald Trump and the Republican Party were seemingly dealt a major blow when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling late last month that blocked, at least for now, a citizenship question from being included on the 2020 U.S. Census. After the high court’s ruling, the Trump administration appeared to give up on the idea; as recently as July 2, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (who oversees the Census) said the administration would be printing Census forms without a question on citizenship.

But Trump is refusing to give up on the possibility of a citizenship question somehow being included on the 2020 Census and appears to be looking for possible ways to do so without running afoul of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

On Friday, Trump told reporters he was weighing his options and was considering some type of “executive order” on a citizenship question for the Census.

View the complete July 5 article by Alex Henderson from AlterNet on the National Memo website here.