美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump Backs Off Census Citizenship Question Fight

Trump¹ Backs Off Census² Citizenship³ Question Fight

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

President Trump is backing down on his effort to get a controversial citizenship question added to the 2020 census. His administration has been fighting in court for more than a year to get the question on. Trump also issued an executive order that he says will improve sharing of citizenship data between agencies.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I am hereby ordering every department and agency in the federal government to provide the Department of Commerce with all requested records regarding the number of citizens and non-citizens in our country. They must furnish all legally accessible records in their possession immediately.

CORNISH: NPR's Hansi Lo Wang covers the census. He's been following this effort from the beginning. And, Hansi, give us more detail on the president's announcement tonight.

HANSI LO WANG, BYLINE⁴: Well, he's essentially⁵ dropping this fight to get this question - the citizenship question onto the 2020 census, saying that it would have delayed the census. And because of essentially logistical hurdles⁶ - this is also U.S. Attorney General William Barr speaking - that that's why they're no longer trying to push this through the courts. But he is going to issue this executive order, which - I've been covering this for more than a year now.

I don't hear anything new in this executive order because if you actually were to go back into Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross's decision to add this question, he also instructed the Commerce Department - the Census Bureau, rather, to compile existing government records from the Social Security Administration, from State Department, from Department of Homeland Security. And these are records the Census Bureau says would be more accurate and less expensive to collect than self-reported responses to a citizenship question.

And the Census Bureau officials, they actually said back in May, just a few months ago, that they've already compiled those records and were waiting for the commerce secretary to give them the go-ahead to release them eventually. So this sounds like the president is backing down and trying to do it in a way that seems like he's not going down in the fight.

CORNISH: Right. Essentially, I mean, you're seeing agencies already share data about citizenship?

WANG: I'm saying that there are special agreements that the Census Bureau has already entered into to get those - get this data from the Social Security Administration and from the Department of Homeland Security. That's already happened. This isn't new. And all the Census Bureau is waiting for - has been waiting for is guidance from the commerce secretary of what to do with this data that he directed them to compile.

CORNISH: President Trump and the Department of Justice have been saying that they would keep trying to get the question on. Is there a sense of what changed here in terms of the legal approach?

WANG: Well, we have to remember that the Supreme⁷ Court ruled that the initial stated reason that the administration gave for this question, they found that it appeared to have been contrived⁸, that it was supposedly - it was to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. A majority of the justices did not buy that explanation and said that technically⁹ the Trump administration could go back to court and try to make another case for this question by giving another reason.

But there are major logistical hurdles. Just last week, the Justice Department and Commerce Department officials confirmed that the printing has already started for paper forms for the census without the citizenship question. There are 1.5 billion pieces of paper including these forms that need to get printed. And time is running out. The 2020 census is set to officially start in January. Any changes at this point to the census questionnaire could derail this constitutionally mandated¹⁰ headcount.

CORNISH: And what happens next?

WANG: It's a really big question, I guess. I think the biggest question here is with all this controversy¹¹ and all this attention on the citizenship question that ultimately will not appear on these forms, how will this impact how households with non-citizens, immigrant communities, communities of color who have heightened fears about the census in general, how will they process all this? And will the Census Bureau, as well as other community groups, will they be able to get full participation¹² from the public with this administration which has brought so much controversy around the census?

CORNISH: That's NPR's Hansi Lo Wang. Thanks for your reporting.

WANG: You're welcome.

1 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。

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 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。

4 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。

5 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。

6 hurdles   

n.障碍( hurdle的名词复数 )；跳栏；（供人或马跳跃的）栏架；跨栏赛

参考例句：

• In starting a new company, many hurdles must be crossed. 刚开办一个公司时，必须克服许多障碍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There are several hurdles to be got over in this project. 在这项工程中有一些困难要克服。 来自辞典例句

7 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。

8 contrived   

adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的

参考例句：

• There was nothing contrived or calculated about what he said.他说的话里没有任何蓄意捏造的成分。
• The plot seems contrived.情节看起来不真实。

9 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

10 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

11 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

12 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。