Here's a related message:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-05010.html
And this disclosure may provide another reason to refuse to answer any
questions in the census not authorized by the U.S. Constitution:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01001.html
-Declan
---
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY OBTAINED
DATA ON ARAB AMERICANS FROM CENSUS BUREAU
-----------------------
Documents Obtained under Freedom of Information Act
Raise Questions About Use of Census Data
-----------------------
EPIC Calls for Congressional Investigation
WASHINGTON, DC - The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a
public interest organization in Washington DC, has obtained
documents revealing that the Census Bureau provided the Department
of Homeland Security statistical data on people who identified
themselves on the 2000 census as being of Arab ancestry. The special
tabulations were prepared specifically for the law enforcement
agency. There is no indication that the Department of Homeland
Security requested similar information about any other ethnic groups.
One tabulation shows cities with 1,000 or more people who indicated
they are of Arab ancestry. For each city, the tabulation provides
total population, population of Arab ancestry, and percent of the
total population that is of Arab ancestry.
A second tabulation, more than a thousand pages in length, shows the
number of census responses indicating Arab ancestry in certain zip
codes throughout the United States. The responses are subdivided
into Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian,
Syrian, Arab/Arabic, and Other Arab.
The tabulations apparently contain information about United States
citizens, as well as individuals of Arab descent whose families have
lived in the United States for generations.
The heavily redacted documents show that in April 2004, a Census
Bureau analyst e-mailed a Department of Homeland Security official
and said, "You got a file of Arab ancestry information by ZIP Code
Tabulation Area from me last December (2003). My superiors are now
asking questions about the usage of that data, given the sensitivity
of different data requests we have received about the Arab
population."
The same day, a Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border
Protection official e-mailed the analyst to explain, "At U.S.
International airports, U.S. Customs posts signage informing various
nationalities of the U.S. Customs regulations to report currency
brought into the US upon entry . . . . My reason for asking for
U.S. demographic data is to aid the Outbound Passenger Program
Officer in identifying which language of signage, based on U.S.
ethnic nationality population, would be best to post at the major
International airports."
During World War II, the Census Bureau provided statistical
information to help the War Department round up more than 120,000
innocent Japanese Americans and confine them to internment camps.
EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg said today, "the Department
of Homeland Security has compromised the mission of the Census
Bureau with this improper request for information about Arab
Americans. The census requires the trust and cooperation of the
American public."
EPIC Staff Counsel Marcia Hofmann said, "The Census Bureau should
not become one-stop shopping for law enforcement agencies. It's time
for Congress to step in and make sure this is not repeated."
ABOUT EPIC
EPIC is a recognized leader in the use of the Freedom of
Information Act to obtain information about government policy on
emerging issues. In the past year, EPIC's Freedom of Information
work resulted in significant disclosures about the Total
Information Awareness program, passenger screening developments,
and the growing number of privacy complaints that consumers have
sent to federal agencies. These documents have been the subject of
Congressional hearings and news reports across the country.
The documents obtained by EPIC from the Census Bureau are
available at:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/census/foia/default.html
For more information about census privacy, see EPIC's Census
Privacy Page:
http://www.epic.org/privacy/census/default.html
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