Ken Cuccinelli, the acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said on Sunday that he wasn’t concerned that a potential citizenship question on the census would be used for political purposes.
Adding a question about immigration on the census, a move currently being battled in court, could potentially skew congressional district lines in favor of white, rural citizens while siphoning voting power from cities with large immigrant communities.
“Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Cuccinelli, “Are you concerned this is being used for political purposes?”
“Well, the census is intended to gather an awful lot of information the way it’s used now,” Cuccinelli said. “However, if your question is will my agency or other agencies see a person who says ‘No, I’m not a citizen,’ and their name and address and so forth, that’s taken on an aggregated basis, that’s not individualized data that comes to us.”
“So no?” Brennan asked.
“Correct,” he responded.
President Donald Trump himself told reporters on Friday that the citizenship question was “For Congress, for redistricting.”
Watch Cuccinelli below:
Ken Cuccinelli denies the Census citizenship question is for political purposes pic.twitter.com/JQf88RjjbU
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) July 7, 2019
