Whether to ask the question invites an answer

The Justice Department and the Census Bureau are engaged in a kerfuffle over the 2020 Census.  It’s all about a question of citizenship: “What country are you a citizen of?”  With the inevitable congressional reapportionment that occurs based on the Census, this is a question that many states really don’t want to know the answer to.

My take:  the Census Bureau has been crying poor for years now.  The Trump Administration should jawbone Congress into increasing the Bureau’s funding, but only if they ASK THE QUESTION (and report the answers).

Update:  Now folks should really be worried.  Combine citizenship data with Google location data (“we have ways to make you opt in”), and some dedicated data miners could find every Android-using illegal alien in the country.

Tips from the Instapundit, where the signal-to-noise ratio seems to be increasing lately.

Update:  It has come to my attention that at least one other branch of the federal government already ASKS THE QUESTION, to wit, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives* E-Form 4473, Firearms Transaction Record has Questions 12 and 13:

In other words, you cannot exercise your 2nd Amendment right to own a firearm unless you ANSWER THE QUESTION.

* Or what I call a Redneck Hedge Fund.