The Census Bureau is “quietly seeking” information about the legal status of millions of people before the Supreme Court rules whether the agency can ask if people are citizens in the 2020 Census, The Associated Press reports.
The Department of Homeland Security has proposed a plan to hand over large amounts of data on noncitizens to the Census Bureau, including their legal status. The AP reports that a pending agreement has been in progress since January, which is the same month that a New York federal judge prevented the Trump Administration from including a question on citizenship in the upcoming census.
Under the plan, Homeland Security would share noncitizens’ full names, addresses, birth date and place of birth, and Social Security numbers and alien registration numbers, according to the AP, which obtained a document signed by the Census Bureau.
“All uses of the data are solely for statistical purposes, which by definition means that uses will not directly affect benefits or enforcement actions for any individual,” the document reads.
“The U.S. Census Bureau routinely enters into agreements to receive administrative records from many agencies, including our pending agreement with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, to assist us in our mission to provide quality statistics to the American public,” Census spokesperson Michael Cook said in a statement. “By law, the Census Bureau does not return any records to the Department of Homeland Security or any of its components, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”