EPIC Report: Homeland Security Got Census Data on Arab Americans

[struggle4progress]

EPIC has obtained heavily redacted documents through the Freedom of Information Act 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. There is no indication that the agency requested similar information about any other ethnic group. 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.
http://www.epic.org/


Freedom of Information Documents on the Census
Department of Homeland Security Obtained Data
on Arab Americans From Census Bureau

EPIC 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. The tabulations apparently include information about United States citizens, as well as individuals of Arab descent whose families have lived in the United States for generations.

One tabulation shows cities with populations of 10,000 or more and 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 which is of Arab ancestry.

A second tabulation, more than a thousand pages long, shows the number of census responses indicating Arab ancestry in certain zip codes in Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. The responses indicating Arab ancestry are subdivided into Egyptian, Iraqi, Jordanian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Palestinian, Syrian, Arab/Arabic, and Other Arab.

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."

http://www.epic.org/privacy/census/foia/default.html

[aquart]

1. Fucking LANGUAGE SIGNS????????

Who the bloody pluperfect hell does he think he's kidding? You're damn lucky if you see an Arab at an airport. My friend, a Quaker who's ancestors arrived a few months after the Mayflower, has a Jordanian husband who was too frightened to pick her up at the airport when she got back from a recent business trip.

[punpirate]

2. Hmmm... seen a lot of new signs...

... in Arabic, Pashtun or Farsi in the airports lately?

[izzie]

3. Now if this is true this should be on the nightly news,

Can you get it to all the stations? I hope you try. Maybe if it gets out on to some of the best blog it will work it way on to CBS etc. Census is open to 1930 now for family study and we are told this is not giving out when we fill the paper work in. Why was this done?

[leftistagitator]

4. That is FUCKED UP.

I worked for the Census a few years ago, the one thing they explicitly told us is NONE of the information we gathered would be used for anything besides the purpose of properly distributing government services and drawing voting districts. They always told us to tell privacy minded citizens that no other branch of the goverment was allowed access to the census records, for any reason. I suppose that's what happens when you trust the government, especially with a Rethug in power.

[Rose Siding]

8. I did too!

In 2000 and I remember explaining to many suspicious people how the census data was used for voting districts and also for identifying areas for govt benefits (high Latino pop areas might receive additional $ for ESL classes or to discover which areas are underserved by utilites) -Just like you!

They have made us liars. My government made me a liar. I'm livid. I went to the homes of strangers and convinced them to trust me. I hope to God I didn't count any Arab Americans. I don't remember. I know I was comfortable offering the option of "American" to anyone who hesitated on the nationality questions and I did that many times.

This kind of policing purpose was NOT included. How do they expect to ever get an accurate census again?

[teryang]

5. The compilation of lists is a police state function

Just check off another block on the fascism checklist.

[leftchick]

6. I wonder how my Christian, Arab Attorney friend in Florida...

who happens to be a repuke feels about this.

[Blue Gardener]

7. Make sure he knows about it

Not that it will change his mind about anything, but at least he'll know about it. I doubt he'll hear it from the mainstream press.

[atreides1]

9. One Name

Manzanar

[cap]

10. well hopefully this locks in the Muslim/arab vote for the Dems

eom