There are flexibilities within the Appropriation Act that would permit, for example, based on language requirements, some exemptions,” says Tim Olson, associate director for field operations at the Census Bureau. “We are actively working through those flexibilities to see if they can be used in 2020. We are not there yet.”
Asked whether the bureau planned to employ people living in the country illegally, a spokesman said, “There is nowhere in our legal flexibilities that refers to people we could possibly hire as ‘illegal.'” When pressed as to whether it’s an option under the current law, the spokesman repeatedly demurred, saying that the term “noncitizen” encompasses “anyone who is not a U.S. citizen.”
