Thread: Trump Expected to Say He Won’t Pursue Citizenship Question on 2020 Census President

Trump Expected to Say He Won’t Pursue Citizenship Question on 2020 Census

President is expected to address next steps for obtaining that information through other means, officials said




Photo: Michelle R. Smith/Associated Press

By Rebecca Ballhaus and
Brent Kendall

Updated July 11, 2019 3:06 pm ET

WASHINGTON—President Trump is expected to announce on Thursday that he will not pursue efforts to get a citizenship question on the 2020 U.S. census, according to administration officials, after the administration spent weeks seeking a legal rationale for doing so.
In a news conference at the White House Thursday afternoon, the president is expected to address next steps for obtaining that information through other means, officials said.
The announcement would mark a concession by the president, who insisted last week, after the Commerce and Justice departments said the fight was over, that all possibilities including an executive order were still being explored. The Commerce Department began printing census forms last week.
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Earlier Thursday, an administration official said the president planned to issue an executive action regarding the citizenship question and the census. Administration officials cautioned the situation remained fluid, and several provided conflicting information earlier in the day about what the president planned to announce.
Administration lawyers advised the White House on Thursday that it wouldn’t be legally feasible to add the citizenship question to the census in the wake of last month’s Supreme Court ruling, and said time was running out to add any additional questions to the census.

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Trump expected to end his fight to add citizenship question to census, sources say

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• katherine faulders
  
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Jul 11, 2019, 2:01 PM ET




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WatchTrump to announce executive action on controversial census citizenship question

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President Donald Trump is expected to announce later Thursday he is backing down from his effort to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census, and will instead take executive action that instructs the Commerce Department to obtain an estimate of U.S. citizenship through other means, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.
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The expected announcement would bring to a close weeks of escalating confusion within the government over his demands that the controversial question be included in the census despite a Supreme Court order that had blocked the move. The White House declined to comment about what exactly the president plans to announce.
(MORE: Supreme Court blocks Trump on census citizenship question, he calls ruling 'ridiculous' )
(MORE: Justice Dept. reverses course on census citizenship question after Trump's tweet)
As recently as Thursday morning, administration officials had been repeatedly suggested the president would take executive action calling for the question be added to the census. It was not immediately clear when and why the final decision was made not to move forward with that plan.
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(MORE: Judge blocks DOJ motion to withdraw legal team on census case)
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP, FILE
In this Oct. 4, 2018, file photo, The U.S. Supreme Court is seen at sunset in Washington, D.C. Attorney General William Barr, who was expected to attend the announcement, will now have to determine a path forward for three separate ongoing court cases the administration is fighting in Maryland, California and New York over the administration's efforts to add the question to the census.
The Department of Justice declined to comment to ABC News.
The expected announcement follows the government's acknowledgement in court last week that census forms continued to be printed without the question, in compliance with the Supreme Court's order last month.
In a majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the administration's previous stated reasoning that it wanted the question added to better enforce the Voting Rights Act, "seems to have been contrived." However, Roberts also left open the possibility that the question could still be added if the administration presented a rationale that was sufficient.
Following that decision, the Justice and Commerce Departments announced last week that they were dropping any renewed effort to add the citizenship question.
But they reversed course after President Trump tweeted that his administration was "absolutely moving forward" with efforts to include the question, sending DOJ lawyers scrambling to work up a new strategy that they could argue in the ongoing New York, Maryland and California cases.
The Justice Department then made a surprise announcement Sunday evening that it planned to completely replace its legal teams arguing those cases, raising speculation that some of the attorneys involved felt uncomfortable with the administration's path forward.
(MORE: Department of Justice shaking up legal team on census case)
In an interview with the Associated Press earlier this week, Attorney General Bill Barr expressed confidence the administration had a legal path to still add the question, and disputed that the swap was a result of any internal objections expressed by the previous legal team.
But in two cases the attempted switch has hit a major roadblock.
Federal judges in both New York and Maryland have denied the government's attempt to withdraw the previous attorneys, both saying the government has not provided enough information on how a transition between the teams wouldn't serve to disrupt ongoing legal proceedings.
(MORE: Judge blocks DOJ motion to withdraw legal team on census case)
Immigration and civil rights groups opposing the administration's efforts have argued that including a citizenship question on the census could reduce response rates in immigrant communities, resulting in federal funding cuts to areas with high minority populations and congressional districts being drawn in a fashion that would politically advantage Republicans.
A Census Bureau report released just last month estimated that adding the question was likely to reduce responses in households with at least one non-citizen by at least 8 percent.
Officials from both the Justice and Commerce departments had previously argued repeatedly in court that the legal issues surrounding the census had to be resolved by the end of June to begin the printing process so forms could be ready for mailing by March.





https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trum...ry?id=64262805

• BREAKING NEWS
  
• Trump, 'not backing down' in effort to count citizens amid census fight, announces executive order
  
  President Trump, speaking at the White House on Thursday, announced that he would "immediately" issue an executive order to get an accurate count of non-citizens and citizens in the United States -- a measure Trump said would be "far more accurate" than relying on a citizenship question in the 2020 census.
  Click here for more.
• For more news, please go to FoxNews.com and watch Fox News Channel.

Trump's cave on Census stuns allies



President Trump departs his press conference on the Census with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Attorney General William Barr. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Jonathan Swan7 hours ago

Top figures in the conservative legal community are stunned and depressed by President Trump's cave in his fight for a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

The state of play: Sources say Leonard Leo and other Federalist Society stalwarts were shocked and floored by how weak the decision was. "What was the dance ... all about if this was going to be the end result?" a conservative leader asked.

• "A total waste of everyone’s time. ... It’s certainly going to give people pause the next time one has to decide how far to stick one’s neck out."
• One GOP strategist called it a "punch in the gut."

A week after insisting that he was "absolutely moving forward," Trump said in the Rose Garden that he instead was directing federal agencies to try to compile the information using existing databases. (AP)

• Trump said: "There used to be a time when you could proudly declare, 'I am a citizen of the United States.'"
• Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, cheered.

A senior administration official summed up the internal frustration at the opposition to the fight from key Justice Department lawyers:

• "What's sad is the President has been right on this since Day 1, but he’s being told it's too hard and too long a road legally. Washington lawyers too often bow to the courts and treat them like a higher branch, when this is ripe for a fight, with American people in full support."

Go deeper: 2020 Census could be worst undercount of black and Latinx people since 1990

https://www.axios.com/donald-trump-c...f68379a82.html