WASHINGTON - The Census Bureau wants immigration agents to suspend enforcement raids during the 2010 census so the government can better count illegal immigrants.
Raids during the population count would make an already distrustful group even less likely to cooperate with government workers who are supposed to include them, the Census Bureau’s second-ranking official said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Deputy Director Preston Jay Waite said immigration enforcement officials did not conduct raids for several months before and after the 2000 census. But today’s political climate is even more volatile on the issue of illegal immigration.
Enforcement agents “have a job to do,” Waite said. “They may not be able to give us as much of a break” in 2010.
Pat Reilly, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, declined to say whether immigration officials would halt raids. “If we were, we wouldn’t talk about it,” she said.
“We would have to discuss this at the highest levels of both agencies,” Reilly said.
Republicans, Democrats and the White House have been at odds over how to resolve the fate of an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. After Congress failed to pass an immigration overhaul sought by the president, the Bush administration said last week that it would step up efforts to enforce immigration laws.
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