I worked in management for the United States Census Bureau during the 2010 Census. There were very strict guidelines dictating the process which allowed us to count the men, women, and children living in the United States.

When the Constitutional Congress included a requirement to enumerate everyone in 1789, they decided that the questions asked of each individual would be limited. They believed that the government should not be allowed to access information considered too private by the individual. The very first decennial census was conducted by Thomas Jefferson that very year.

Here in Northern Nevada we have a large number of Hispanics. Our instructions were to gain their confidence by telling the truth. We were not concerned about whether or not they were in our state legally; we simply wanted to count them, as required by federal law.

The Department of Commerce is in charge of the the operations of the census bureau. Although the decennial census is required by the Constitution, the bureau conducts many other surveys which serve the needs of the Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Transportation, the Justice Department, and others. The questionnaires for these specific agencies are more detailed and voluntary.

Wilbur Ross is the Secretary of Commerce. He alone has decided to add one extremely controversial question to the decennial census. This question asks the citizenship of each individual.

Ross is a close friend of Vladimir Putin, a xenophobe, and a racist. This single question is a violation of the number one rule of the decennial census; privacy. Asking this single question is another effort by Trump and his circle of sinners to single out immigrants and deport them. It is also a thinly disguised effort to change the results of our elections by altering districts in blue states.

Thanks to the efforts of leaders in the Hispanic community, my enumerators had enormous success counting the number of Hispanics residing in this part of our state. Ross’ idea will harm that effort. He is another old, white man who should not be involved in our political system. He is a self-centered billionaire whose time is past, and has no relevance in our nation, unless congress allows him to accomplish his personal goals.

The men and women who worked with me and for me are to be praised for their enormous success in the 2010 Census. We finished an enormous task ahead of schedule and two-billion dollars under budget.

The bottom line is that I know much more about how the census should be conducted than Ross. Like all of Trump’s circle of sinners, he is a failure and unworthy of his position.

Save your country, democracy, and the Constitution. Vote all Republicans out of office in November.

Op-ed by James Turnage

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Image courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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