Posted on 08/16/2007 2:28:07 PM PDT by Cat loving Texan
08/16/2007 By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER / Associated Press
The Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the 2010 census so the government can better count illegal immigrants.
Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them, the Census Bureau's second-ranking official said in an Associated Press interview.
Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. But today's political climate is even more volatile on the issue of illegal immigration.
Enforcement agents "have a job to do," Waite said. "They may not be able to give us as much of a break" in 2010.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman declined to say whether immigration officials would halt raids. "If we were, we wouldn't talk about it," Pat Reilly said.
"For us to suspend that enforcement would probably take a lot more than one meeting," Reilly said. "We would have to discuss this at the highest levels of both agencies."
The issue arises as the U.S. struggles to resolve the fate of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. After Congress failed to pass an immigration overhaul sought by the president, the Bush administration last week said it would step up efforts to enforce immigration laws.
One lawmaker said she thinks "it's nuts" for the Census Bureau to ask for a break in enforcement.
"I don't know what country the Census Bureau is living in," Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., said in a telephone interview from her district. "I can tell them the American people have grown sick and tired of their immigration laws not being enforced. They are not going to tolerate enforcement being suspended for any amount of time."
The Constitution requires the Census Bureau to count everyone, including illegal immigrants, in the census. The once-a-decade population count is then used to apportion seats in Congress and to appropriate billions of dollars in federal spending each year.
Miller has introduced a constitutional amendment that would apportion seats in Congress based only on the number of U.S. citizens in each state.
The Census Bureau plans to approach all federal agencies for help in getting an accurate count, Waite said.
Illegal immigrants are notoriously hard to count, although outside experts estimate that census workers count 85 percent to 90 percent of them.
Census workers ask immigrants if they are citizens; they do not ask if they are in the country legally.
"We're supposed to count every resident. If you go out and ask, 'Are you here illegally?' they are going to run," said Kenneth Prewitt, who directed the Census Bureau during the 2000 census.
Prewitt said the public already is suspicious of government workers knocking on their doors and asking personal questions. Those suspicions are amplified among illegal immigrants, even though personal information collected by Census Bureau is private by law.
Prewitt said immigration officials informally agreed to cooperate with the Census Bureau during the 2000 census by not conducting any large-scale raids.
"If they had a reason to think it was important to carry out an action, they would have done so," Prewitt said. "But they did offer to cooperate as much as possible so they didn't create a climate of fear. They did not carry out any major raids."
Reilly, the immigration enforcement spokeswoman, said she could not confirm any informal agreements to scale back enforcement during the 2000 census.
She said the agency "continued to perform its duty to enforce the nation's immigration laws by continuing to investigate, pursue and arrest criminal and other egregious violators."
Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, said the intense debate over immigration has made immigrants even more suspicious of the government today.
"The Census Bureau has a job to do," said Vargas, who belongs to a committee that advises the bureau on the 2010 census. "They need to convince people that they need to report themselves to the federal government and that it's going to remain confidential. That's a hard sell."
Supporters of stricter immigration laws said the whole discussion of suspending raids shows that the immigration system is broken.
"If you don't enforce your laws, this is what you are going to get, one agency asking another agency to subvert the law," said Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates stricter enforcement of immigration laws.
On The Net:
Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov
The census bureau can take their little paper work and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
I am constantly amazed at the pure stupidity in every branch of government. By now you would think I would expect it.
1 little, 2 little, 3little illegals......just count their asses on the way OUT!
I think this is a serious campaign question to ask ALL the candidates.
Mr. Candidate: (or Mzzzz. Candidate Hillary:)
“Do you support halting immigration raids during the 2010 census?”
Candidats will say one of two things, NO or they will weasel that the issue needs to be studies blah blah blah...
Delay,Delay,Delay.Im tired of this BS.deport these aliens out of the United States without delay.They don’t belong here so kick them out.Now.
So, include them in the number deported. That's one count I'd like to see.
Until Rep. Candice Miller of Michigan's proposal to exclude illegal aliens in population counts for the purposes of fair congressional apportionment is enacted into law, a good projection of the illegal alien population can be made by sampling local welfare offices, jails and hospital ER's. Simply project said percentages into the total population and adjusting the counts accordingly would make sanctuary cities end their practives so fast your head would spin.
What makes them think that an Illegal Alien in this country is going to fill out a Census Form? What idiots!
So the states with more illegals can get more seats in the House? F$%k that noise.
Let’s just send ICE along with the census counters and kill two birds with one stone.
citers were paying illegal aliens to fill out the forms.
Census forms equal dollars.
This is why the democrats fought so hard to allow sampling for federal dollar determinations.
It is enumeration for voting districts but sampling for pork.
That’s exactly what it’s about. Now watch where the illegals are going.
OH this is dumb
I don't believe it. The Census Bureau estimates of illegals have been notoriously low.
Let’s not upset the invaders! They might get sick tummies.
I agree with you, and I work with the govt. My group is great and very conscientious in their work, but you would not believe what other agencies do to show who is the stupidest, and it costs the taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year, if not more. My job is to help prevent this stupidity but there is so much I can only handle what I know about.
This Deputy Director Waite should be fired immediately for his politically correct cra*p. The only thing he should be Waiteing for is his number to come up in the unemployment line.
I’m sure that all my illegal immigrant neighbors fully answer all the questions that the census taker asks (if you can find them in their overcrowded houses and apartments, or at their jobs at night so they are not home when the census takers come, or when they are hiding out at other peoples houses, or are in jail).
There is nothing worse than a politically correct entrenched govt bureaucrat. You can’t even get them out with Ex-Lax or a super-enema.
Old news. Someone actually put up a bill to change that, of course it didn’t go far.
Illegals cancel a citizens votes in more ways than one.
At one time I worked fo the county government. I learned about the Peter Principle real fast.
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