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Confidentiality and the Census

By immigrationprof

From the Asian American Justice Center:

AAJC Applauds Tri-Caucus and DOJ for Leadership on Census Confidentiality Reassurances 
WASHINGTON — AAJC applauds the Tri-Caucus, including Rep. Mike Honda of California, for taking leadership in requesting that the Department of Justice assess the strength of the federal law protecting the confidentiality of census responses.  

Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus chairman Honda and the chairwomen of the Congressional Black Caucus (Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.) and Congressional Hispanic Caucus (Rep. Nydia Velazquez, D-N.Y.) wrote Attorney General Eric Holder in September at the urging of AAJC, the Leadership Conference Education Fund, NAACP, NALEO Educational Fund, and National Congress of American Indians – all partners in a national collaborative census campaign. Recognizing that the communities the Tri-Caucus represents are the most often missed and hardest to count in the decennial census, they asked Holder to determine whether the privacy protections for individual census responses afforded by the law (Title 13) trumped all other federal statutes.

Congressional and community leaders have been hearing for months that many in our community are fearful of participating in the census, and, in particular, that there is uncertainty about potential Patriot Act ramifications.

In responding to the Tri-Caucus letter, DOJ made clear that Congress did not intend to override the confidentiality protections in the Census Act (Title 13) when it passed the Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56, 115 Stat. 272, as amended). Title 13 prohibits the Census Bureau and its employees from sharing any personally-identifiable information with any government agency, court or outside entity and sets forth severe violation penalties.

“Census 2010 is paramount to our community’s ability to get its fair share of political power and government money and have its needs addressed,” said Terry Ao, AAJC’s director of census and voting programs. “The Department of Justice simply reaffirmed what we have known all along – that participating in the census will not harm any individual because all responses are confidential. We urge everyone in our community to fill out and mail back their census forms in the upcoming weeks – it’s safe; it’s easy; and it’s vital.”

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