美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Administration To Print 2020 Census Without Citizenship Question

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

A long fight over the census¹ has apparently² come to an end. The Trump³ administration has decided⁴ to print forms for the 2020 census without a question asking whether respondents are citizens. This comes after more than a year of legal battles. Last week, the Supreme⁵ Court ruled to temporarily keep the question off census forms, but the court had left open the possibility that the administration could make its case for the question once more. NPR's Hansi Lo Wang covers all things census-related. And he joins me from New York.

Hey, Hansi.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE⁶: Hey, Mary Louise.

KELLY: So this means the Trump administration is no longer going to try to get a citizenship⁷ question - any kind of citizenship question on the census.

WANG: It looks like it. I tried to get final confirmation⁸ from a spokesperson for the Department of Justice, which is representing the administration. The spokesperson texted back - confirm; no citizenship question on the 2020 census. And I just have a statement here from Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees⁹ the Census Bureau. And he says, I quote, "my focus and that of the bureau and the entire department is to conduct a complete and accurate census." Although, he says that he strongly disagrees with the Supreme Court ruling regarding blocking the citizenship question from being added.

And to remind everyone, this is a question that asks, is this person a citizen of the United States? The deadline to start printing was yesterday, so this is a very last-minute decision here. And just for context, just yesterday, President Trump said this was a very important question to be added to census forms.

KELLY: And just for a little more context, remind us why this particular question was so controversial.

WANG: Well, this is a kind of question that the Census Bureau has long known to be a very sensitive question - a question that is likely to discourage some non-citizens and some citizens from participating in the census. And that is a big deal because the Constitution requires a head count of every person living in the country, regardless of citizenship status, regardless of immigration status. So this is a question that researchers have found that would undermine those efforts to do an accurate count of every person living in the country.

This is also a question that Census Bureau researchers have found would not produce the most accurate information about citizenship; that if the Trump administration wanted to know exactly how many U.S. citizens there are living in the U.S., adding this question was not the way to do it. And instead, it's compiling existing government records from various federal agencies. And the bureau has done just that. And that's a question I have now. What exactly will the Trump administration do with those existing government records about citizenship?

KELLY: Right - an important reminder¹⁰ that if the Trump administration still wants to learn the answer to this question, there are other ways to collect that information. I - now that this question is not going to be on the census, what - where does that leave the census? What does it mean going forward?

WANG: Well, I imagine there's a big sigh of relief at the Census Bureau because there were a lot of looming¹¹ questions these past 24, 48 hours, where it was very unclear whether or not the forms would include a citizenship question - something that essentially¹² - Census Bureau researchers have essentially described it - you know, this would be throwing a bomb in the room. This is a longtime, big government program that had - years had been spent to prepare for this, and this would have derailed preparations possibly. You know, President Trump was saying that he wanted to delay the census in order to get this question on this form.

KELLY: And I'm curious. Given how controversial this has been, how much coverage¹³ there has been - we don't usually have a full-time¹⁴ census correspondent, (laughter) but that's, more or less, what you've been these last few months. How might this affect whether people respond to the census? - you know, people deciding to participate.

WANG: You know, there's a lot of concern amongst advocacy groups that this - all this focus on the citizenship question has essentially maybe tainted¹⁵ the well; that there's a close association between the census and a citizenship question. And the concern is that many immigrant groups and communities of color may not participate. And that may lead to an undercount in 2020.

KELLY: The concern that they are spooked no matter how this has ultimately shake out - NPR's Hansi Lo Wang, reporting there from New York.

Thank you very much.

WANG: You're welcome.

1 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

7 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

8 confirmation   

n.证实，确认，批准

参考例句：

• We are waiting for confirmation of the news.我们正在等待证实那个消息。
• We need confirmation in writing before we can send your order out.给你们发送订购的货物之前，我们需要书面确认。

9 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

10 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

11 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

12 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

13 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

14 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

15 tainted   

adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏

参考例句：

• The administration was tainted with scandal. 丑闻使得政府声名狼藉。
• He was considered tainted by association with the corrupt regime. 他因与腐败政府有牵连而名誉受损。 来自《简明英汉词典》