Embattled Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham resigns Tara Bahrampour The embattled director of the U.S. Census Bureau is resigning in the wake of allegations that he had supported a partisan push to deliver data on undocumented immigrants to President Trump before the president leaves office. Steven Dillingham’s resignation will be effective Wednesday, according to a farewell message he sent to the bureau staff, posted on the agency’s website Monday.
Reports last week from bureau whistleblowers said political appointees were pressuring staff members to release state tallies of undocumented immigrants by Jan. 15, regardless of their accuracy, to boost Trump’s effort to exclude them from congressional apportionment. Those reports prompted calls from civil rights groups and Democratic lawmakers for Dillingham to resign.
Census Bureau says it will stop trying to provide Trump with tally of undocumented
Tara Bahrampour, The Washington Post
Jan. 14, 2021
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WASHINGTON - The U.S. Census Bureau has apparently abandoned its effort to compile tallies of undocumented immigrants, effectively ending President Donald Trump s quest to exclude them from congressional apportionment, according to a letter posted on its website Wednesday afternoon.
The statement came a day after the Commerce Department s Office of Inspector General (OIG) sent a letter outlining reports from whistleblowers who said Trump appointees in the bureau have been making a last-ditch push to produce tallies of undocumented immigrants so the president could try to exclude them from congressional representation before he leaves office next week.