President Donald Trump threw a fastball at the left on Thursday by announcing that, instead of continuing to pursue plans to try and add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census — plans that were foiled by the Supreme Court late last month — he intends to approach the problem from a better angle
Bizpac Review reports
The new approach calls for all federal agencies to submit their existing records on citizens and non-citizens to the Department of Commerce. According to the president, the U.S. Census Bureau has projected that this method of tallying America’s population would be 90 percent effective.
“I’m hereby ordering every department and agency in the federal government to provide the Department of Commerce with all requested records regarding the number of citizens and non-citizens in our country,” he said during a presser in the Rose Garden that afternoon.
Listen:
” They must furnish all legally accessible records in their possession immediately. We will utilize these vast federal databases to gain a full, complete, and accurate count of the non-citizen population, including databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security and the Social Security Administration.”
“We have great knowledge in many of our agencies. We will leave no stone unturned. The Census Bureau projected that using previously available records, it could determine citizenship for 90 percent of our population or more.”
He added that this was not a capitulation: “Today I’m here to say we are not backing down on our effort to determine the citizenship status of the United States population.”
The message was not heard by the media’s “journalists.” Echoing their congressional Democrat allies, the majority of “journalists” rushed to portray the president’s executive order as a stinging defeat:
Shameful lineup in Rose Garden: #Trump #Ross #Barr would be comical for their spinning humiliating defeat as victory except for menace of their real intentions to use census as tool of oppression and distortion. https://t.co/bfcu1cdl1F via @intelligencer
— Shanlon Wu (@shanlonwu) July 12, 2019
Trump denounced Democrats and “extremely unfriendly” courts, while effectively conceding defeat. https://t.co/rhVmot8A57
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) July 12, 2019
Trump Admits Defeat On Citizenship Census Question, Barr Says DOJ Will ‘Study’ Whether House Seat Apportionment Can Be Rigged To Help GOP – https://t.co/OztP4MOc0q
— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 12, 2019
WATCH: Trump admits defeat: No citizenship question. https://t.co/zPXdYVLnpr #inners
— All In w/Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) July 12, 2019
Defeat of citizenship question huge victory for democracy, but major threats to fair census still include Trump’s terrorizing of immigrant communities & GOP push to draw districts that solidify white power https://t.co/EK33zXxyq2
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) July 11, 2019
On Thursday, Trump threw a party in the Rose Garden—to formally announce his defeat at the hands of liberals and a conservative Supreme Court justice he so despises https://t.co/HAKSZc68Ca
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) July 11, 2019
President @realDonaldTrump’s census defeat is a significant victory for democracy and fair representation.
Every person must be counted, and no one should be intimidated by the president and his capricious behavior.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 11, 2019
Fox News was one of a few, rare networks to cover the events accurately:WaPo said he “backed down” on his attempt to add a citizenship question to census. NYT said he had “abandoned his attempt.” And WSJ characterized it as a “major retreat.”
But here’s how Fox is framing it. https://t.co/zLsOMmofu1 pic.twitter.com/tAlr32U3Kp
— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) July 12, 2019
The key provision of the order issued by the president on Thursday is that it “eliminates long-standing obstacles to data sharing.”
“Ultimately, this will allow us to have an even more complete count of citizens than through asking the single question alone. It will be, we think, far more accurate,” he said.
He could very well be right. The problem with adding a citizenship question to the U.S. Census has always been that illegal aliens could simply lie about their status.
According to the Washington Examiner, the actual order allows for a plethora of critical information to be sent to the Department of Commerce from each of the following fellow departments:
- “Department of Homeland Security: National-level file of Lawful Permanent Residents, naturalizations, F1 and M1 nonimmigrant visas, national-level file of customs and border arrival/departure transaction data”
- “Department of State: refugee and asylum visas, national-level passport application data
- “Social Security Administration: Master beneficiary records”
- “Department of Health and Human Services: CMS Medicaid and CHIP Information System”
Combined, this information could very well provide a far more accurate overview of what the population looks like. As a result, the EO has garnered praise from the president’s supporters.
Look:
It was definitely a 4D chess move
Highlight the issue let everyone see how absurd it is to not know how many citizens are here
But come up with a more accurate methodology for assessing setting a posititive precedent
Avoid Executive Order past the court
Plan all along surely
— i miss hitchens (@ibelieveindop) July 11, 2019
Trump Executive Order is a more accurate count of illegals than a question anyway. If an illegal has ever received any benefits, IRS, SS, SNAP, WIC, housing, FHA loans ObamaCare, hospitalized, a license or ID#, been arrested etc, they’ll be counted & census adjusted. #Winning
— Jerome Kingston (@jrmkingston) July 11, 2019
BRAVO TRUMP!
BRAVO AG BARR!
Great Executive Order~ Outside the Box~ achieves more accurate information which LEFT doesn’t want FEDERAL GOVERNMENT to have as they use illegals to gain Delegates & Federal Funding! Left is LIVID their CORRUPT PRACTICES are now thwarted!! BRAVO!— VickieLFisher (@VickieLFisher) July 11, 2019
EXECUTIVE ORDER to consolidate databases to determine how many CITIZENS, as well as, how many NON-CITIZENS are in our country, and where they reside. It will be MORE ACCURATE than the traditional census.
I LOVE OUR PRESIDENT!!!!
I feel sorry for the FEEBLE DEMOCRATS..
GOTRUMP
— DavidRo68159236 (@ro68159236) July 11, 2019
Trump was not defeated. His executive order will give him a more accurate count of Citizens and Non-citizens in this country than the citizenship question, which wouldn’t be answered by illegal immigrants anyway. He had found a way to gather more data on illegal immigrants
— Scott Ardoin (@ScottArdoin3) July 12, 2019
Speaking at Thursday’s Rose Garden presser, Attorney General Bill Barr added to the praise.
“I applaud the President for recognizing in his executive order that including a question on the census is not the only way to obtain this vital information,” he said.
“The course the President has chosen today will bring unprecedented resources to bear on determining how many citizens and non-citizens are in our country, and will yield the best data the government has had on citizenship in many decades. That information will be used for countless purposes, as the President explained in his remarks today.”
Listen to the whole presser below:
From Bizpac Review
