总统唐纳德·特朗普试图排除非法移民纽约一家联邦法院周四裁定，从人口普查统计来看，这违反了法律。
三名法官组成的小组决定，负责监督人口普查局的商务部长不能将非法居住在该国的人排除在用于确定国会席位的总人口之外。
“总统备忘录违反了分配法规，因为只要他们居住在美国，非法外国人就有资格成为‘一个’州的人，”法官写道。
由民主党领导的州检察长小组和由美国公民自由联盟领导的移民权利团体联盟提出了法律挑战，他们将该命令描述为“否认无证移民基本人性的仇外努力”。这些团体的律师表示，该指令“公开且明显”违反了宪法。
杰奎琳·马丁/美联社
前人口普查局局长约翰·汤姆逊(左)和政府问责局战略问题小组常务董事克里斯托弗·米姆(J. Christopher Mihm)于2020年9月10日在国会山举行的众议院监督和改革委员会关于2020年人口普查的听证会上作证。
“这是投票权和移民权利的巨大胜利，”为该案辩护的美国公民自由联盟律师戴尔·何说特朗普总统试图将针对移民社区的人口普查武器化，但再次失败。"
这一决定是在一场关于人口普查是否能准确进行的根本性辩论中做出的，这场辩论是由冠状病毒健康危机。
上周，加州的一名联邦法官暂时禁止特朗普政府停止了人口普查工作，因为有人质疑将人口普查减少一个月的决定，这比最初计划的要短，以适应大流行造成的延误。
政府的批评者担心，坚持较短期限的决定将导致低估低收入和农村社区，这些社区通常是人口普查工作人员更难接触到的。凤凰城附近的吉拉河印第安人社区和纳瓦霍部落都加入了反对政府的诉讼，以维持最后期限的延长。
贾斯汀·沙利文/盖蒂影像公司
2020年3月19日，在加利福尼亚州圣安塞尔莫，美国人口普查标志出现在收到的人口普查材料上，并附有在线填写人口普查信息的邀请。
吉拉河社区的州长斯蒂芬·罗伊·刘易斯(Stephen Roe Lewis)周四对众议院监督委员会表示:“可以毫不夸张地说，在部落社区，准确的人口普查可能事关生死，因为受人口普查影响的项目会影响医疗保健的提供、公共安全、我们的青年和老年人项目、住房、暴力侵害妇女赠款以及其他支持我们部落社区的项目。”
在同一次听证会上，曾在2013年至2017年期间管理人口普查局的约翰·汤姆逊告诉委员会，该机构需要更多时间从偏远地区收集数据。人口普查专家警告说，如果人口普查局被迫过早结束统计，将会导致无法证明统计的准确性。
汤普森说:“我非常担心，在2020年9月30日之前采取的截断2020年人口普查数据收集活动的行动，将对质量和准确性产生不利影响。”。
政府问责办公室报告上个月晚些时候，在推迟后加快计数的决定被定性为准确性的“风险”。它还发现，该局一直在努力雇佣和留住员工，以说服居民回答和参与。
美国政府问责局常务董事克里斯托弗·米姆(J. Christopher Mihm)周四对众议院议员表示:“我认为，人口普查局在提供符合日益增长的历史要求的准确性和完整性的统计数据方面将面临巨大挑战。”
Court halts Trump administration's attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from census
PresidentDonald Trump's attempt toexclude unauthorized immigrantsfrom the census count violated the law, a federal court in New York ruled on Thursday.
The three-judge panel determined that the secretary of Commerce, who oversees the Census Bureau, could not leave out people living in the country illegally from the population totals used to determine congressional seats.
"The Presidential Memorandum violates the statute governing apportionment because, so long as they reside in the United States, illegal aliens qualify as 'persons in' a 'State,'" the judges wrote.
Legal challenges were brought by a group of Democratic-led state attorneys general and a coalition of immigrant rights groups led by the American Civil Liberties Union, which described the order as a "xenophobic effort to deny the basic humanity of undocumented immigrants." Lawyers for the groups said the directive "openly and obviously" violated the Constitution.
John Thompson, former director of the Census Bureau, left, and J. Christopher Mihm, managing director of the Strategic Issues Team of the Government Accountability Office, testify before a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing on the 2020 Census, Sept. 10, 2020, on Capitol Hill.
"This is a huge victory for voting rights and for immigrants' rights," said ACLU attorney Dale Ho, who argued the case. "President Trump has tried and failed yet again to weaponize the census against immigrant communities."
The decision comes amid a fundamental debate over whether the census can be conducted accurately given the delays caused by thecoronavirushealth crisis.
Last week, a federal judge in Californiatemporarily barredthe Trump administration from winding down census operations in a case that challenged the decision to cut the count a month shorter than originally planned to accommodate for delays caused by the pandemic.
Critics of the administration are concerned the decision to adhere to a shorter deadline will result in undercounting low income and rural communities that are typically harder for census workers to reach. The Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix and the Navajo Nation both joined the lawsuit against the administration to preserve the deadline extension.
The U.S. Census logo appears on census materials received in the mail with an invitation to fill out census information online on March 19, 2020 in San Anselmo, Calif.
"It is not an exaggeration to say an accurate census can be a matter of life or death in tribal communities because the programs impacted by census count affects delivery of health care, public safety, our youth and elder programs, housing, violence against women grants and other programs that sustain our tribal communities," Stephen Roe Lewis, governor of the Gila River Community, told the House Oversight Committee on Thursday.
In the same hearing, John Thompson, who ran the Census Bureau from 2013 to 2017, told the committee that the agency needs more time to collect data from hard to reach localities. Census experts have warned that if the bureau is forced to conclude counting too quickly it will result in a count that cannot be certified as accurate.
"I am extremely concerned that the actions that have been taken to truncate 2020 census data collection activities by Sept. 30, 2020, will adversely affect the quality and accuracy," Thompson said.
A Government Accountability Officereportlate last month characterized the decision to expedite the count after its delay as "a risk" to accuracy. It also found the bureau has struggled to hire and retain staff needed to convince residents to answer and participate.
"I think it will be an enormous challenge for the Census Bureau to deliver counts that meet the increasing historical demands for accuracy and completeness," GAO Managing Director J. Christopher Mihm told House lawmakers on Thursday.
