Census Bureau Chief Steven Dillingham Resigns Amid Controversy on Immigrant Count

By Mary Anne R. First Posted: Jan 19, 2021 07:42 AM EST

Steven Dillingham announced Monday his plan to resign as director of the U.S. Census Bureau when the new administration takes control of the government.

Steven Dillingham, whose term was supposed to be finished at the end of the year, said that he would resign on Wednesday, the same day when President-elect Joe Biden takes the oath of office.

According to an NBC News report, the Census Bureau director's plan to resign comes in the middle of computing the 2020 census numbers, which would be used to determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state gets. It would also determine the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal spending each year.

His announcement to resign followed after receiving a memo on Jan. 12 from the Commerce Department's Office of Inspector General, questioning whether he has been pressuring bureau employees to produce a technical report on undocumented immigrants' statistics in the U.S. before Biden takes over.

"Those employees acknowledged that they have not had sufficient time to conduct their normal data quality checks, and they expressed concern that the data required for this report is not ready for publication for several reasons," read the memo.

One of the concerns about the early release of data was that it could jeopardize the information's accuracy. According to a Voice of America News report, one whistleblower suggested that if released in a rushed, the data would be statistically indefensible and could be misinterpreted, misused, or affect the Census Bureau's reputation.

After the memo was made public, Steven Dillingham said that he ordered those who are involved in the count to stand down and discontinue their data reviews, Reuters reported.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly sought to exclude undocumented immigrants from the population's total count used to allocate congressional districts to states.

Last month, the Census Bureau said it would miss a year-end deadline to produce the population count.

Census Bureau's Undocumented Immigrants Count

Undocumented immigrants have long been the focus of the Trump administration on the census data. The White House pushed to include a citizenship questionnaire in 2018 consisting of a request that was later blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court.

To swiftly process data amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration recommended last year that undocumented immigrants be excluded in the count, which was also dismissed by the high court.

Some cited fears of not including undocumented immigrants could benefit Republicans. Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York alleged Steven Dillingham of siding with the president.

House Oversight and Reform Committee said in a statement that Steven Dillingham appears to have acceded repeatedly to the Trump administration rather than ensure an accurate count.

The statement added that Steven Dillingham has failed to be open and transparent with Congress, noting that the recent events have indicated he has lost the confidence of the Census Bureau people.

Steven Dillingham took over the agency in January 2019 after being nominated by Trump. Biden has yet to announce his choice to head the Census Bureau and other significant appointees in the agency.