Speech #1010088013

The administration has been very clear on this issue. The Justice Department has told us that is unconstitutional. and the Secretary of Commerce has indicated he would recommend a veto of this legislation because it is unworkable. It is unworkable because: First. the Census Bureau cannot act as a surrogate Immigration Service. Census enumerators are neither qualified nor capable of interpreting immigration law and passing judgment on every persons citizenship and immigration status. Only a month ago. the INS settled a lawsuit for $110.000 with a young Hispanic man that it had wrongly deported. Now if INS doesnt even know whos deportable. how can we expect the Census Bureau to make that Judgment? Second. attempts to identify undocumented residents would frighten away citizens and immigrants alike from being counted. and the Census Bureau would lose any credibility about maintaining confidentiality. This will significantly decrease the accuracy of the census. Third. after the census. when State and local elected officials begin threatening lawsuits because their numbers dont add up. the Census Bureau wont be able to tell us if minority populations were again undercounted. or if undocumented and legal residents were simply scared off. Excluding anyone from the census count is bad public policy. It will take away the hope that the census will one day correct the historical undercount of Hispanic Americans and other population groups.