Race Census Aff – mags compiled by Lenny Brahin Jaden Lessnick Jillian Gordners Brian Roche 1AC

Topicality

T-Infosharing

We meet – Race data is used for policy decisions – this means it’s exactly what their ev about “data gathering to stop a certain action” describes

T – surveillance

Census = surveillance

Evidence-based planning of any form of health service or preventive programme requires the initial collection of information on the types and distribution of health problems in the population. This is the task of surveillance, which refers to the systematic and ongoing collection and analysis of population-level health information in order to guide the design of public health and preventive interventions. There are two main types of surveillance. Long-term, passive monitoring of general health trends and health determinants provides key information on the health status of populations. This has documented the current epidemic of obesity and changes in trends of certain cancers. Active, ongoing, or short-term surveillance searches for emergent diseases or outbreaks such as SARS or pandemic influenza A (H1N1), and helps society respond early to new threats. In both cases, a health state, disease, or specific agent is identified as a target for surveillance.

Role of Clinicians in Public Health Surveillance

While public health services take overall responsibility for coordinating health surveillance, individual clinicians have a major role to play by reporting occurrences of certain contagious diseases that they see. It is primary care physicians who typically see the initial cases in what may become an epidemic. They may see more people than usual presenting with a particular condition, and patients might mention other people with the same disease. While the primary care physician may be in a position to begin a preliminary investigation, she must contact the public health service to initiate prevention and control measures (e.g. contact tracing) as necessary. The public health authorities assemble such case report data to provide a broad perspective on the extent and severity of a health threat. As well as completing mandatory notification of disease, physicians also contribute to surveillance systems by completing death certificates, by entering accurate diagnoses on hospital discharge forms and billing forms.

Types of surveillance

Passive surveillance

The ‘passive’ in passive surveillance refers to the role of the agency responsible for it: they wait for the reports to come to them. Reports may take the form of routinely collected data, such as hospital discharge summaries, mortality data, or physician billing data. Reports can also be in the form of reports of notifiable diseases that must, by law, be reported. The health professional providing the report has an active role in this type of surveillance. However, health professionals do not always realize the importance of the information they provide, so under-reporting can be a problem.

Notifiable diseases are those considered to be of public health importance. Legislation requires physicians and laboratories to report them to the local public health agencies once they are suspected or diagnosed. This allows these agencies to track disease occurrence and identify possible outbreaks early, in order to implement prevention and control measures in a timely manner. In addition, some provinces have legislation that requires notification of possible outbreaks, even if the disease itself is not notifiable. For example, the Quebec Public Health Law demands "any physician who suspects the presence of a threat to the health of the population must notify the appropriate public health director." In this way, public health departments should be notified of potential health threats so they can investigate and intervene quickly to reduce the risk to the population. Other information on Notifiable disease is available in Chapter 11.

Hospital and Billing Data

Hospital discharge summaries can provide useful information on patterns of disease and on the therapies being used. However, because availability of services greatly influences their use, comparisons of these data between places and over time are of limited value. Similarly, physician billing data can be used, but new methods of physician remuneration and inaccurate and missing diagnoses limit the usefulness of this data source for surveillance.

Vital Statistics: Births and deaths

Recording births and deaths is mandatory in most countries and provides basic vital statistics. Physicians are responsible for entering the causes of death on the death notification. The causes are coded according to the International Classification of Diseases so countries can compare death rates and report on the evolution of diseases. Again, the accuracy of this information depends on the accuracy with which the original reporting physician recorded the cause of death because they are rarely confirmed by autopsy.

The coding rules of the International Classification of Diseases specify that the reporting physician distinguish between the underlying cause of death and the precipitating cause(s). The underlying cause is "the disease, injury or pathological condition that initiates the chain of events leading to death.1" Data compilers follow a protocol which governs the decision about what disease to record as the main cause of death. For example, a patient with lung cancer who dies of pneumonia is likely to have his death attributed to lung cancer even if the pneumonia was unrelated to the cancer. Death records are routinely used to compile national information on trends in diseases such as cancer.

Active surveillance

Health surveys

The census

We meet – surveillance is disciplining of a population and the census does that

Mezey, 3 – Professor of Law at Georgetown University (Naomi, “Erasure and Recognition: The Census, Race and the National Imagination”, 97 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1701-1768 (2003) Northwestern University Law Review, 2003)//jml

This Article compares the census of the late nineteenth century with that of the late twentieth century in order to investigate the differences and some consistencies in the uses to which the census has been put and the changes it has helped to engender. I conclude that the census is both subject to cultural changes in the discourse of race as well as an inspiration for such changes, and that it has played at least two simultaneous and contra- dictory roles with respect to defining communities of identity as well as the body politic. It has been thought of as a mechanism of surveillance and discipline of groups that were incompatible with the national self-image; and it has also been used in an aspirational way by groups seeking recogni- tion of a group identity and inclusion in the national community. But these seemingly contradictory impulses ofthe census are always entangled as part of the project and power of enumeration. Identity recognition is also iden- tity production and discipline in the sense that every act of recognition en- tails other categorical erasures, elisions, and enforcements. And ironically, even counting for the purposes of erasure requires recognition. Thought of another way, the census has been a source of simultaneous erasure and rec- ognition in the battle over national and group identity. It is in this sense that the census is a legal mechanism of cultural production-a constitution- ally-mandated, legally-significant official statistics of a people that has de- fined and redefined communities of identity and become both the screen and projector for the national imagination.

Surveillance is observation to gather information

Dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surveillance) JG

surveillance

[ser-vey-luh ns, -veyl-yuh ns]

noun

Continuous observation of a place, person, group, or ongoing activity in order to gather information

Census is a form of government surveillance

Privacy International 90 (PrivacyInternational.org investigates government surveillance, litigates surveillance cases, and conducts research for policy change. Founded in 1990. https://www.privacyinternational.org/?q=node/5) JG

One of the oldest forms of mass surveillance are national databases. These old administrative surveillance techniques include censuses registering the subjects of a kingdom, ID documenting individuals and tattoos marking them, and numbering and categorising humans.∂ The searchable nature of databases makes any datastore a potential investigative tool and increases the potential of trawling. This is why national databases are supposed to be regulated carefully under law in democratic societies. Census databases collect detailed information on individuals in a country but should not be used to identify specific individuals or populations. Identity schemes should be limited to very specific uses and not allow for discrimination or for abusive use of stop-and-identify powers. The increasing use of biometrics and the ability to query identity databases for matches and near-matches allows for fishing expeditions that increase the risk of abuse and re-use of the system for other purposes than for which it was designed.

Census taking is used by the FBI to map populations and target communities who are believed to be a threat

Markon 11 [Jerry, "ACLU says FBI uses racial profiling against Muslims, other minorities", The Washington Post, 10/20/11, "www.washingtonpost.com/politics/aclu-says-fbi-uses-racial-profiling-against-muslims-other-minorities/2011/10/20/gIQAN3Ob1L_story.html] // SKY

The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday accused the FBI of profiling Muslims and other minorities and targeting them for investigation, allegations that FBI officials quickly disputed. Unveiling a new project called “Mapping the FBI,’’ the ACLU used internal bureau documents to portray the FBI as linking criminal behavior to racial and ethnic groups and using U.S. census data to “map” those communities so they can be investigated. The civil liberties group posted the documents on the Internet and vowed to further expose what it called unconstitutional FBI tactics. In one document that was highlighted, a 2009 memo in the FBI’s Detroit field office sought permission to collect information on Middle East terrorist groups in Michigan, noting that: “Because Michigan has a large Middle Eastern and Muslim population, it is prime territory for attempted radicalization and recruitment by these terrorist groups.’’ But the same memo pointed out that the terrorist groups “use an extreme and violent interpretation of the Muslim faith,’’ appearing to make a distinction between extremists and other Muslims. And each document was heavily redacted, leaving unclear what agents did with any information they collected. Taken together, the memos “confirm some of our worst fears” about FBI surveillance, Hina Shamsi, director of the ACLU’s National Security Project, said in a conference call with reporters. “The FBI has targeted American communities for investigation based not on suspicion of wrongdoing but on the crudest stereotypes.’’ FBI spokesman Michael P. Kortan rejected that interpretation of the documents, which the bureau turned over to the ACLU in legal proceedings. He said that the FBI opposes discrimination against minorities but that “certain terrorist and criminal groups target particular ethnic and geographic communities for victimization and/or recruitment purposes. This reality must be taken into account when determining if there are threats to the United States.” Kortan added that mapping is widely used by law enforcement and is essential to protecting the nation from terrorist attacks. “Just as putting push pins on a map will allow a local police chief to see clearly where the highest crime areas are, combining data that is lawfully collected into one place allows connections to be identified that might otherwise go unnoticed,” he said. FBI officials characterized the use of census data as one factor that helps field offices identify potential threats in their regions, their top priority as the bureau continues its post-Sept. 11, 2001, transformation into an organization able to detect and dismantle terrorism plots. The debate reflects the FBI’s ongoing challenges in balancing its fight against terrorism with respect for civil liberties. The bureau’s tactics have long been controversial, and civil liberties groups have accused agents of overreacting to the Sept. 11 hijackings. FBI officials say they have helped safeguard the nation from another attack. The documents released Thursday emerged from requests filed last year with the FBI by 34 ACLU affiliates nationwide under the Freedom of Information Act. The ACLU, which is seeking to uncover evidence of racial profiling, has sued the bureau in three states, seeking to compel production of more materials. Other documents show FBI offices collecting census data and linking it to perceived threats from groups, such as the National Black Panther Party, Chinese and Russian organized crime, and the Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, street gang. Documents from offices in Alabama, New Jersey and Georgia, for example, cite concerns that MS-13 members are committing more crimes. Noting that members are typically from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras, the memos break down population data for local people born in those and other Latin American countries. They also cite other material that agents say justifies investigative activity, but much of it is redacted.

The census is used to gather information on different groups

Ahmad and Hagler 15 (CenterForAmericanProgress.com, Farah Z. Ahmad is a senior policy analyst for American Progress with a B.A. from Princeton and Jamal Hagler is the Special Assistant for Progress 2050 and has a B.A. from Harvard. “The Evolution of Race and Ethnicity Classifications in the Decennial Census”, 2-6-2015, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2015/02/06/102798/the-evolution-of-race-and-ethnicity-classifications-in-the-decennial-census/]) JG

The U.S. decennial census is one of the nation’s most important government programs, offering much more than just the population count used to determine each state’s representation in Congress. The decennial census provides essential data, demographic and otherwise, that inform the allocation of vast government resources. Results often serve as the basis for federal, state, and local public policies, ranging from funding new infrastructure projects to providing increased job opportunities for workers. This makes the decennial census particularly important for communities of color, which face significant gaps compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts in indicators of economic security and opportunity such as education, employment, and health.∂ While the data collected from smaller U.S. Census Bureau surveys—such as the Current Population Survey—are sufficient for some purposes, the decennial census provides a unique opportunity to compile a massive amount of information on many different groups. The resulting data set is large enough for disaggregation—meaning the extrapolation of data by various subgroup characteristics—a process that can provide a much clearer picture of the landscape for specific groups and their particular needs. This is especially relevant for smaller demographic groups—for example, national origin groups within the Asian American and Pacific Islander, or AAPI, community such as Cambodian, Chinese, and Bangladeshi Americans. In the absence of large data sets based on accurate race and ethnicity survey questions, crucial information would remain unknown and investments in communities who could benefit most would potentially be overlooked

Census data used to target certain races – Japanese internment proves

Minkel 7 [JR Minken is a lab technician and freelance journalist, and has written one book, Instant Egghead Guide: The Universe. “Confirmed: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WW II” 3-30-07 http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-the-us-census-b/] JG

Despite decades of denials, government records confirm that the U.S. Census Bureau provided the U.S. Secret Service with names and addresses of Japanese-Americans during World War II.∂ The Census Bureau surveys the population every decade with detailed questionnaires but is barred by law from revealing data that could be linked to specific individuals. The Second War Powers Act of 1942 temporarily repealed that protection to assist in the roundup of Japanese-Americans for imprisonment in internment camps in California and six other states during the war. The Bureau previously has acknowledged that it provided neighborhood information on Japanese-Americans for that purpose, but it has maintained that it never provided "microdata," meaning names and specific information about them, to other agencies.∂ A new study of U.S. Department of Commerce documents now shows that the Census Bureau complied with an August 4, 1943, request by Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau for the names and locations of all people of Japanese ancestry in the Washington, D.C., area, according to historian Margo Anderson of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and statistician William Seltzer of Fordham University in New York City. The records, however, do not indicate that the Bureau was asked for or divulged such information for Japanese-Americans in other parts of the country.∂ Anderson and Seltzer discovered in 2000 that the Census Bureau released block-by-block data during WW II that alerted officials to neighborhoods in California, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Arkansas where Japanese-Americans were living. "We had suggestive but not very conclusive evidence that they had also provided microdata for surveillance," Anderson says.

U.S. census data used to surveil citizens – multiple census disclosures prove

Minkel 7 [JR Minken is a lab technician and freelance journalist, and has written one book, Instant Egghead Guide: The Universe. “Confirmed: The U.S. Census Bureau Gave Up Names of Japanese-Americans in WW II”, 3-30-2007, http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-the-us-census-b/] JG

The memos from the Bureau bear the initials "JC," which the researchers identified as those of then-director, J.C. Capt. "What it suggests is that the statistical information was used at the microlevel for surveillance of civilian populations," Anderson says. She adds that she and Seltzer are reviewing Secret Service records to try to determine whether anyone on the list was actually under surveillance, which is still unclear.∂ ∂ "The [new] evidence is convincing," says Kenneth Prewitt, Census Bureau director from 1998 to 2000 and now a professor of public policy at Columbia University, who issued a public apology in 2000 for the Bureau's release of neighborhood data during the war. "At the time, available evidence (and Bureau lore) held that there had been no … release of microdata," he says. "That can no longer be said."∂ ∂ The newly revealed documents show that census officials released the information just seven days after it was requested. Given the red tape for which bureaucracies are famous, "it leads us to believe this was a well-established path," Seltzer says, meaning such disclosure may have occurred repeatedly between March 1942, when legal protection of confidentiality was suspended, and the August 1943 request.∂ ∂ Anderson says that microdata would have been useful for what officials called the "mopping up" of potential Japanese-Americans who had eluded internment.∂ ∂ The researchers turned up references to five subsequent disclosure requests made by law enforcement or surveillance agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, none of which dealt with Japanese-Americans.∂ ∂ Lawmakers restored the confidentiality of census data in 1947.∂ Officially, Seltzer notes, the Secret Service made the 1943 request based on concerns of presidential safety stemming from an alleged March 1942 incident during which an American man of Japanese ancestry, while on a train from Los Angeles to the Manzanar internment camp in Owens Valley, Calif., told another passenger that they should have the "guts" to kill President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.∂ ∂ The incident occurred 17 months before the Secret Service request, during which time the man was hospitalized for schizophrenia and was therefore not an imminent threat, Seltzer says.∂ ∂ The disclosure, while legal at the time, was ethically dubious and may have implications for the 2010 census, the researchers write in a paper presented today at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America held in New York City. The U.S. has separate agencies for collecting statistical information about what people and businesses do, and for so-called administrative functions—taxation, regulation and investigation of those activities.∂ ∂ "There has to be a firewall in some sense between those systems," Anderson says. If a company submits information ostensibly for documenting national economic growth but the data ends up in the antitrust division, "the next time that census comes they're not going to get that information," she says.∂ ∂ Census data is routinely used to enforce the National Voting Rights Act and other policies, but not in a form that could be used to identify a particular person's race, sex, age, address or other information, says former director Prewitt. The legal confidentiality of census information dates to 1910, and in 1954 it became part of Title 13 of the U.S. Code, which specifies the scope and frequency of censuses.∂ ∂ "The law is very different today" than it was in 1943, says Christa Jones, chief of the Census Bureau's Office of Analysis and Executive Support. "Anything that we release to any federal agency or any organization … all of those data are reviewed," she says, to prevent disclosures of individual information.∂ ∂ The Census Bureau provided neighborhood data on Arab-Americans to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2002, but the information was already publicly available, Jones says. A provision in the controversial Patriot Act—passed after the 9/11 attacks and derided by critics as an erosion of privacy—gives agencies access to individualized survey data collected by colleges, including flight training programs.∂ ∂ The Census Bureau has improved its confidentiality practices considerably in the last six decades, former director Prewitt says. He notes that census data is an increasingly poor source of surveillance data compared with more detailed information available from credit card companies and even electronic tollbooths.∂ ∂ Nevertheless, he says, "I think the Census Bureau has to bend over backwards to maintain the confidence and the trust of the public." Public suspicion—well-founded or not—could undermine the collection accurate census data, which is used by sociologists, economists and public health researchers, he says.∂ ∂ "I'm sad to learn it," he says of the new discovery. "It would be sadder yet to continue to deny that it happened, if, as now seems clear, it did happen. You cannot learn from and correct past mistakes unless you know about them."

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