Letter to Inspector General of Commerce Peggy E. Gustafson, and Inspector General of Justice Michael Horowitz - Harris, Colleagues Call For Investigations Into Trump Administration Efforts to Undercut Minority Communities, Politicize 2020 Census

Letter

Dear Inspectors General Gustafson and Horowitz:

We write to urge you to review the actions taken by both the Departments of Justice and Commerce to hide the contribution of a deeply partisan political operative in the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, as reported in the press. Specifically, we urge you to review the following:

(a) In depositions and congressional interviews, Justice and Commerce Department officials failed to disclose the substantive public policy role of a political operative, Dr. Thomas Hofeller, in adding the citizenship question to the 2020 Census; and

(b) In concealing the contribution of Dr. Hofeller, Justice and Commerce Department officials purposely obscured the impermissible racial and partisan motivations for adding a citizenship question--to be "advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites" and to "clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats"--in both the Justice Department's December 2017 letter requesting the citizenship question and the Commerce Department's March 2018 memorandum adding the question.

Taken together this new evidence not only contradicts Secretary Ross's assertion that the addition of the citizenship question would assist in Voting Rights Act enforcement, but also implicates officials in the Justice and Commerce Departments in an effort to hide from the Congress and the public the true rationale for this question. This reported misconduct warrants an immediate review by your offices.

We appreciate your attention to this matter, and we look forward to your response.

Sincerely,