As the Trump administration moves forward with efforts to compile detailed citizenship information for the upcoming census, the U.S. Census Bureau has asked Texas to consider sharing parts of its driver’s license and ID database.
The Texas Department of Public Safety received the request from the bureau Oct. 2 with a proposal for the state to provide a monthly dataset, including driver license or ID numbers and citizenship status for Texans who have been issued those documents. A DPS spokeswoman said the department was reviewing the request, but “no action has been taken at this time.”
Similar requests went out across the country as part of the Census Bureau’s efforts to comply with a July executive order from President Donald Trump that called for compiling citizenship data from existing government records. The bureau has long used state administrative records to supplement and improve its surveys, the bureau said in a statement released earlier this week, but it recently expanded into driver’s license records for the 2020 census.
“Responses to all Census Bureau surveys and administrative records obtained by the Census Bureau are safe, secure and protected by law,” the bureau’s statement read.
DPS on Friday provided The Texas Tribune with the communications it received from a Census Bureau official, including a template for a data-sharing agreement. That template included a proposal for the state to provide monthly records from 2018 through 2023. The requested data includes “driver license number or identification number, type of card, name, address, date of birth, sex, race, citizenship status, data issued and date updated.”
Several states have rejected the federal government’s request. But it’s unclear whether Gov. texas considering whether driver license citizenship information census bureau
