DHS to share citizenship data with Census Bureau in wake of court decision

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said it will share citizenship information with the Census Bureau following a 2019 executive order by President Trump that stemmed from a Supreme Court decision.

DHS quietly announced the move at the end of December in a document posted to its website.

“DHS will share various data elements that the Census Bureau has articulated a need to know for the purpose of executing the [executive order], including personally identifiable information,” the department said in the document posted Dec. 27.

The executive order was issued after the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The Supreme Court said in June that the administration did not give an adequate reason for wanting to include the question in the decennial population count.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will provide information from records dating back to 1973, according to DHS. Customs and Border Protection will provide information from 2013 through 2018, including a person’s latest ZIP code, if available.

The new policy was first reported by Federal Computer Week.

It is not clear if the personal information shared will provide an accurate determination of citizenship status.

“Determining an individual’s citizenship based on various DHS data is a challenging task,” DHS said in the document, adding that “no one source of citizenship information is complete and up-to-date.”

The agency said “there will be no adverse impact” to any misidentified individuals because the information “is for statistical purposes and Census statistical products only.”