Census Bureau Wants Immigration Raids Halted

The U.S. Census Bureau’s deputy director wants federal agents to cease illegal immigration raids during the 2010 census so the government can get an accurate count of people in the country illegally.

The bureau’s second in command, Preston Jay Waite, said illegal aliens are already distrustful of the U.S. government and immigration raids during the next official population count would make them less likely to cooperate with data collectors.

Waite said that immigration enforcement agents didn’t conduct raids for several months before and after that last official population count in 2000 and his agency is asking for the same in 2010. Otherwise, illegal immigrants fearful of being deported may hide.

Officials at the Homeland Security agency that usually conducts the raids, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), refuse to discuss the possibility of halting enforcement to allow for a more accurate count of the estimated 12 million people living in the U.S. illegally. They also refused to acknowledge a conscious halt in raids surrounding the 2000 count.

One outraged lawmaker found the Census Bureau’s request for a break in enforcement to be "nuts." The Michigan Congresswoman, Candice Miller, said Americans are sick and tired of immigration laws not being enforced and they would not tolerate a suspension in enforcement.

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