美国高等法院考虑人口普查的问题

The US High Court Considers Citizenship¹ Question For Census²

The United States Supreme³ Court will soon decide whether everyone who lives in America will be asked if she or he is a citizen.

The issue relates to the Census – that is, the survey that residents are required to fill out every 10 years. The next Census comes in 2020.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s government argue that officials need to use the Census to find out how many people living the U.S. are legal citizens. That way, they say, they can better protect citizens’ ability to vote in elections.

Lawyers opposed to the idea say non-citizens will not answer the survey because they are afraid of being removed. As a result, they say, the information gathered will be incorrect.

Census information is required by the Constitution to show how many people live in the country and where. The numbers are used to decide how many lawmakers an area can send to Congress, and how much influence a state can have in a presidential election. The information also influences the amount of federal money different areas receive for schools, roads and other services.

So, if non-citizens do not answer the Census, areas with high immigrant populations – such as Florida, California and Texas – could lose political power and money.

The current chief of the U.S. Census Bureau is Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. He says he does not have good evidence that will happen. But, he says, even if it did, the benefits of asking about citizenship outweigh⁴ the risks.

Six of the Census Bureau’s former directors have publicly disagreed with him. Judges in three states have also struck down Ross’s request. They said it violates the process for adding new Census questions, and it may harm the government’s ability to carry out the Census.

Critics have also questioned Ross’s political reasons for proposing the question.

The Supreme Court is now considering Ross’s argument and case.

Has this question been asked before?

Supporters point out that some form of a citizenship question was included in the Census every ten years between 1890 and 1950. But then several things happened.

One was that the number of immigrants to the U.S. dropped. Margo Anderson, a Census historian, told NBC News that the U.S. government passed a measure in 1924 restricting immigration. She said that, as a result, by the mid-1900s lawmakers were not very concerned about a citizenship question.

In addition, she said, survey methods changed. Officials found they could get better information and spend less money by creating two surveys. One survey was long and asked a number of questions, including about citizenship. The other was short and asked only a few questions, none about citizenship.

From 1970 to 2000, between 5 and 20% of residents received the long form survey. Officials used their answers to make informed judgments⁵ about the whole country. They found that, following a change to immigration laws in 1965, the percentage of foreign-born people in the country grew sharply. In 1970 about 5% of residents were born in another country. In 2000, nearly 11% were.

In the early 2000s, survey methods changed again. The Census Bureau began sending about 1 in 38 households a survey every year. It is called the American Community Survey. It is the government’s way to collect citizenship information, among other things.

Yet, Census Bureau chief Wilbur Ross says some people do not give honest answers to the questions in the survey. He wants to move the citizenship question from the American Community Survey to the Census. If the Supreme Court justices approve, the 2020 Census will ask of every U.S. resident: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”

The Supreme Court is likely to announce its decision on the case in June.

I’m Caty Weaver⁶.

Words in This Story

survey - n. an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something?

resident - n. someone who lives in a particular place?

benefit - n. a good or helpful result or effect

1 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。

2 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。

3 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。

4 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。

5 judgments   

判断( judgment的名词复数 )； 鉴定； 评价； 审判

参考例句：

• A peculiar austerity marked his judgments of modern life. 他对现代生活的批评带着一种特殊的苛刻。
• He is swift with his judgments. 他判断迅速。

6 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。