Last fall Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX-11) introduced the Citizen Only Updated National Tally Act (COUNT Act) (H.R. 5156), legislation that would seek “to develop complete and accurate data on the number of citizens, noncitizens, and illegal aliens in the country.”
Per the bill, “Such data is necessary to understand the effects of immigration on the country, and to inform policymakers in setting and evaluating immigration policies and laws, including evaluating proposals to address the current crisis in illegal immigration.”
Each federal agency would be tasked with giving the Commerce Department “the maximum assistance permissible in determining the number of citizens, noncitizens, and illegal aliens in the United States, including by providing any access that the Department may request to administrative records that may be useful in accomplishing such objective.”
H.R. 51516 would require the following federal agencies to, “to the maximum extent consistent with law, provide access to the Department of Commerce to the following records”:
- “Department of Homeland Security, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services; National-level file of Lawful Permanent Residents, Naturalizations.”
- “Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement; F1 and M1 Nonimmigrant Visas.”
- “Department of Homeland Security; National-level file of Customs and Border Arrival/Departure transaction data.”
- “Department of Homeland Security and Department of State, Worldwide Refugee and Asylum Processing System; Refugee and Asylum visas.”
- “Department of State; National-level passport application data.”
- “Social Security Administration; Master Beneficiary Records.”
- “Department of Health and Human Services; CMS Medicaid and CHIP Information System.”
The Census Bureau Director would need to “establish an interagency working group to coordinate efforts, consistent with law, to maximize the availability of administrative records in connection with the census, with the goal of obtaining administrative records that can help establish citizenship status for 100 percent of the population.” The group would be chaired by the director, with “the head of each agency” designating “a representative to the working group upon request from the working group chair.”
Also, to “ensure that the Federal Government continues to collect the most accurate information available concerning citizenship going forward, the Secretary of Commerce” would be required by H.R. 5156 to “initiate any administrative process necessary to include a citizenship question on the 2030 decennial census and to consider any regulatory changes necessary to ensure that citizenship data is collected in any other surveys and data-gathering efforts conducted by the Bureau of the Census, including the American Community Survey.”
Interestingly, the bill would also require the Commerce Secretary to “expand the distribution of the American Community Survey to secure better citizenship data.”
Further, the Commerce Department would be tasked with strengthening “its efforts, consistent with law, to gain access to relevant State administrative records” and to annually report to Congress on which states are refusing to comply.
Finally, H.R. 5156 would prohibit the Census Bureau from using “the differential privacy process” within 6 months of the bill’s enactment. The Bureau would need to “issue public guidance on how the privacy of individual responses will be guaranteed in the absence of such process.”
The Count Act (H.R. 5156) was referred to the House Committees on the Judiciary, Homeland Security, Foreign Affairs, Ways and Means, Oversight and Government Reform, and Energy and Commerce. It has eight cosponsors.
