Inspector Says Trump Backers Are Rushing Census to Block Immigrants

(Bloomberg) -- A federal government inspector is investigating whether the Census Bureau is trying to push though a population count that excludes undocumented immigrants before President Donald Trump leaves office, giving Republicans a possible advantage in drawing congressional districts for the next decade.

In a memo to Census Bureau officials Tuesday, the Commerce Department’s inspector general said she was investigating whistle-blower reports that political appointees at the agency were making the report a “top priority” and that career employees were “under significant pressure” to produce the report by Friday.

The inspector general also said Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham “inquired into a financial reward for speed on this directive.”

Spokespeople for the Census Bureau and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross did not immediately return requests for comment.

Trump signed a directive last year ordering the Census Bureau to exclude undocumented immigrants from its decennial count of the population. Those numbers are used to apportion congressional seats and draw their districts, and excluding immigrants would reduce the political influence of states and cities with large immigrant populations.

Commerce Inspector General Peggy Gustafson is looking into whether the Census Bureau is ignoring data quality concerns in order to push the numbers out more quickly. In court filings last week, federal lawyers said that data anomalies would likely push back release of the top-line census numbers into mid-February.

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