On the recordJune 19, 2019
I am proud to be offering this amendment to prohibit the Census Bureau from sharing the data it collects with other Federal agencies, along with my colleague Congressman Cisneros. We do this by requiring the Census Bureau to uphold its statutory confidentiality obligations. The White House is trying to silence immigrant families and make them afraid to participate in the Census. If the Supreme Court doesn't strike down the citizenship question-- and, sadly, it appears they may not--immigrant families in districts like mine may choose not to participate, afraid that their citizenship status will be shared with ICE. That means my State will receive less representation in Congress, and New Yorkers will be left without a voice in the Halls of Congress, as well as the commensurate Federal funding we will need to adequately deal with the actual population that has been undercounted. The Constitution says the Census is supposed to be a complete enumeration. That means each and every person is supposed to be counted. However, it is clear that the White House's citizenship question is a blatant attempt to undercount immigrant families and exclude them from our democracy. We also know the Census has a history of violating its statutory obligation not to share personal data. During World War II, ancestry information was used to identify Japanese Americans for internment.…
