An NPR article attempts to claim that:
This is in contrast with the administration’s assertion that the question was last asked during the 1950 census. However, a closer examination of NPR’s claim (in their own article, no less) seems to make very little distinction between the 1950 census question(s) and that proposed by the administration.
NPR’s argument is that in 1950 the census asked where someone was born, which automatically inferred citizenship if they were born in the United States. Then, if the party had answered that they were born somewhere other than in the U.S., they were immediately asked if they were naturalized – again, inferring citizenship. These two questions accomplish the same task as the administration’s proposed multiple-choice question for the 2020 census – it determines whether or not the subject being interviewed is a citizen or foreign national. The results are no different than that obtained from the administration’s proposed multiple-choice census question.
I am concerned that this NPR article may be attempting to sway the public against the citizenship question by using the misleading representation that the proposed question is somehow different than the question(s) previously asked. It makes me wonder about the partiality of NPR’s reporting.