Former Gov. Gary Locke: We should have citizenship answer, but not on Census

Former Washington Governor Gary Locke, who also served as the secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce and as the ambassador to China under President Obama, is praising the United States Supreme Court for striking down a question in the 2020 Census that sought to find out how many illegal immigrants are living in the country.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on Thursday that by asking the question of whether or not a person was an American citizen, “the Commerce Department had violated its own procedures and basically had come up with a lie as justification for including the citizenship question on the Census,” Locke explained on the Dori Monson Show.

Previously, Locke had urged everyone — whether citizens, legal immigrants, or illegal immigrants — to ignore the question as a form of protest.

It was a decision for which he received criticism from Dori.

Dori | Gary Locke wants to hide critical information on immigration question

Other methods besides the Census

But on Friday, Locke said that there are different methods the federal government can use to find out how many people living in the nation have come here illegally.

“The Commerce Department does have other ways, and every year does provide those numbers on citizenship … this question was absolutely not necessary,” Locke said.

Every year, he explained, the Census Bureau of the Commerce Department conducts the American Community Survey, which, along with other government documents, calculates the number of citizens in the nation.

“It’s considered very, very reliable,” Locke said.

When the Census came into existence in 1790, it counted both citizens and non-citizens, he said, so the original intent of the Census was not to just include citizens. At that time, slaves were not considered citizens, but were still counted in the Census.

He pointed out that the citizenship question’s very presence on the Census would likely have skewed the accuracy of how many citizens and non-citizens live in the United States, because people who are here illegally might be afraid to answer truthfully.

Furthermore, the Census question had only asked whether or not a person was a citizen, so it “would not have given the information as to how many are here legally or illegally,” Locke added.

“Don’t we deserve to know — since all the Democrat candidates want to give health care to illegal [immigrants] — shouldn’t we as a nation know how many are here?” Dori asked him.

Locke responded that it’s a “fair question” and the government should indeed get the answer, but that other government and law enforcement records are a better avenue than the Census.

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t have that information, I’m just saying that I have not looked into that,” he said. “And I’m saying that the Census is not the proper vehicle for doing that.”

Locke on President Trump

While Locke is no fan of President Trump, he is working with him to bring about change — notably with the re-vamped North American Free Trade Agreement.

“I disagree with him on most policies, though I’m helping to promote the passage of the re-negotiated — what I call NAFTA 2.0 — which is the U.S./Mexico/Canada trade agreement,” he said. “Because it’s going to increase jobs for the people of Washington state and it kind of corrects some of the deficiencies that have cropped up with NAFTA over the last 25 years.”

Still, Locke does not see Trump as someone whom he could support in an election, first and foremost from a moral standpoint.

“I think we want a president that our kids can look up to, that we can hold up as a role model in terms of personal behavior, in terms of ethics, in terms of consistency of what you say,” he said.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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