Robert Santos, the U.S. Census Bureau director, resigned on Friday halfway through his five-year term, according to NPR.
In a LinkedIn post, Santos said it was an “honor to serve our nation.”
The Senate approved Santos in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Chuck Schumer (R-NY), then-Majority Leader, said Santos was the person the country needed for the Census due to his impartiality, experience, and experience outside politics.
“We need to protect our Census from the pressures of partisan politics and Mr. Santos is a perfect fit. President Trump, true to form, spent years trying to politicize and weaponized our country’s Census—going as far as maliciously trying to include citizenship questions and have counts of undocumented immigrants,” Schumer said at the time.
As director, he worked on questionnaire changes for sexual orientation, ethnicity, and gender identity.
“Building generational trust across communities and tribal nations is foundational to ensuring our methods, data, and products are timely, of high quality, and relevant,” Santos wrote a letter, according to Politico. “I’ve seen firsthand how we can provide relevant data to communities to address their needs as defined by their life experiences and perspectives.”
Liberal groups have concerns about who President Donald Trump will appoint for this position.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights urged Trump to pick someone who will uphold the Census Bureau’s “commitment to impartiality.”
“The integrity of the U.S. Census Bureau must remain above partisan influence, ensuring that data collection and reporting continue to serve the American people with accuracy, transparency, and fairness,” the group said.
In January, Representative Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11) re-introduced the Equal Representation Act to “prohibit the influence of illegal immigrants in Americans’ congressional representation.”
“America will be paying the consequences of the previous administration’s open border policies for decades to come. Mass illegal immigration has already diluted the voice of American citizens in the U.S. House and Electoral College. The Equal Representation Act will reverse these problems by asking a very simple question on the U.S. Census, ‘Are you a citizen of the United States?’ said Edwards. “Americans deserve fair and equal representation, something that will not be possible until we eliminate the influence of noncitizens in our elections.”
During Trump’s first administration, he signed an executive order preventing illegal immigrants from being counted in the U.S. Census Bureau, but the Biden administration rescinded it.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at zschmidt1717@gmail.com. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
