Mark Harris Questions Witnesses on Citizenship Question in U.S. Census

Importance of a Citizenship Question

• 🎯 Including a citizenship question in the census is argued to be constitutionally mandated for understanding the total population's relationship to the data collected.
• 🔑 Knowing citizenship or lawful permanent resident status is crucial for accurately using census data.

Historical Context of Citizenship Question

• ❓ The census has historically included a citizenship question, but it has not been included recently.
• ⚠️ Attempts to include it in the past faced issues, potentially related to APA violation issues.
• 🧐 Speculation suggests the removal was an attempt to inflate population counts for apportionment purposes by including undocumented immigrants.

Effects of Excluding Citizenship Data

• 📊 Without accurate citizen status, it's impossible to create political districts based solely on lawful permanent residents and citizens.
• 💰 Federal funding formulas for programs like Medicaid, highways, and education rely on population data, and excluding citizenship status can distort these allocations.
• ⚠️ Not distinguishing between citizens and non-citizens for federal programs can incentivize states to encourage undocumented immigration through sanctuary policies.

2020 Census Data Processing Issues

• ✅ The collection of data for the 2020 census was exemplary, despite challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and hurricanes.
• ⚠️ The primary problems arose in data processing, particularly with differential privacy.
• 🧩 Differential privacy is described as moving people from urban to rural areas in modeling, potentially distorting political representation.
• 📈 Group quarters data also presented issues, with colleges and other large facilities being double-counted and data being adjusted based on assumptions rather than direct answers.
• ⚖️ These processing errors, especially the movement of populations, can undermine the census's purpose of accurately representing the American people.