Opposing view: Why we’re reinstating citizenship question

The Commerce Department declined to provide an opposing view. Excerpts from a memo issued late Monday by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross:

I have carefully considered the argument that the reinstatement of the citizenship question on the decennial census would depress the response rate. Because a lower response rate would lead to increased non-response followup costs and less accurate responses, this factor was an important consideration in the decision-making process. I find that the need for accurate citizenship data and the limited burden that the reinstatement of the citizenship question would impose outweigh fears about a potentially lower response rate.

No one provided evidence that reinstating a citizenship question on the decennial census would materially decrease response rates among those who generally distrusted government and government information collection efforts, disliked the current administration, or feared law enforcement.

Several stakeholders who opposed reinstatement of the citizenship ques- tion did not appreciate that the question had been asked in some form or another for nearly 200 years. Other stakeholders who opposed reinstatement did so based on the assumption that the data on citizenship that the Census Bureau collects through the American Community Survey are accurate, thereby obviating the need to ask the question on the decennial census.

But the Census Bureau estimates that between 28% and 34% of citizenship self-responses on the ACS for persons that administrative records show are non-citizens were inaccurate.

After a thorough review of the legal, program and policy considerations, as well as numerous discussions with the Census Bureau leadership and interested stakeholders, I have determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census is necessary to provide complete and accurate data in response to the Justice Department request.

To minimize any impact on response rates, I am directing the Census Bureau to place the citizenship question last on the decennial census form.