The anomalies could jeopardize Trump's effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from census data

The Census Bureau acknowledged on Thursday it ran into anomalies while processing data from this year's decennial count, potentially jeopardizing President Donald Trump’s effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from census figures used to divvy up congressional seats.

Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said the agency ran into problems trying to finish tabulating census figures in time to be sent to the White House by a Dec. 31 deadline. Democrats in Congress and outside experts warned that finishing an accurate count may not be possible this year or before Trump leaves office. During post-collection processing, certain processing anomalies have been discovered. These types of processing anomalies have occurred in past censuses. I am directing the Census Bureau to utilize all resources available to resolve this as expeditiously as possible. As it has been all along, our goal remains an accurate and statistically sound Census.

The agency originally planned on having five months to tabulate and check the data, but after the administration cut short the count, only two and a half months remained. The Census Bureau did not respond to questions Thursday about the nature of any delays or whether it would still deliver data by the end of the year.

House Oversight and Reform Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney accused the agency of keeping Democrats in the dark on census problems. In a letter sent to Dillingham on Thursday night, she cited documents leaked to the committee earlier this year that said the compressed schedule could undercut accuracy of the count. Today’s press reports indicate that the Census Bureau’s warnings in August were correct and that an accurate count which the Constitution requires cannot be produced for several more months.

She asked Dillingham to provide the committee with any information produced for Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, about problems with the count and the agency’s handling of the reported anomalies.