Census workers can enter your apartment in your absence
Thousands of census workers, including many temporary employees, are fanning out across America to gather information on the citizenry. This is a process that takes place not only every decade in order to complete the constitutionally-mandated census; but also as part of the continuing “American Community Survey” conducted by the Census Bureau on a regular basis year in and year out.
What many Americans don’t realize, is that census workers — from the head of the Bureau and the Secretary of Commerce (its parent agency) down to the lowliest and newest Census employee — are empowered under federal law to actually demand access to any apartment or any other type of home or room that is rented out, in order to count persons in the abode and for “the collection of statistics.” If the landlord of such apartment or other leased premises refuses to grant the government worker access to your living quarters, whether you are present or not, the landlord can be fined $500.00.
That’s right — not only can citizens be fined if they fail to answer the increasingly intrusive questions asked of them by the federal government under the guise of simply counting the number of people in the country; but a landlord must give them access to your apartment whether you’re there or not, in order to gather whatever “statistics” the law permits.
In fact, some census workers apparently are going even further and demanding — and receiving — private cell phone numbers from landlords in order to call tenants and obtain information from them. Isn’t it great to live in a “free” country?
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1,749 comments Add your comment
Beth
May 28th, 2010
1:40 am
Anything beyond asking the number of people in my home is intrusive and has NO BEARING on the census. If this is about head counts, then why are they asking about age, race, and relationships? And let’s not EVEN get started on the long form which asks TOTALLY intrusive questions!
Tell ya what — I’ll provide full disclosure when Obeyme does and produces a viable birth certificate, answers to why his Social Security card was issued out of Connecticut, and proof that he went to Columbia.
bryan holliday
May 28th, 2010
1:49 am
What intrusive questions??? They just want to know how many people are living at each home! This is needed information for distribution of funds. Get over this Civil Liberties crap. I believe in personal freedoms and Rights but don’t be naive to think that a Government census in infringing upon our rights to privacy. Geesh.
bryan holliday
May 28th, 2010
1:50 am
Beth you’re nuts…he has provided his birth certificate and it was proven to be a certified document. Get over that birther nonsense.
Joe Schmo
May 28th, 2010
1:52 am
“Anything beyond asking the number of people in my home is intrusive and has NO BEARING on the census. If this is about head counts, then why are they asking about age, race, and relationships? And let’s not EVEN get started on the long form which asks TOTALLY intrusive questions!”
The Census is in place to determine proper representation. Unfortunately, our country has a history of institutional racism expressed through gerrymandered districts. Understanding the racial demographic of an area ensures that the people responsible for districting do so without regard to race.
Beth
May 28th, 2010
1:53 am
Seth’s Mummy
May 27th, 2010
11:46 pm
Why so much hate from the right? Barak is just trying to make things fair, for all Americans, even those of us left in the gutter by the excess of the Bushie years.
We need to level the playing field, if that means more taxes, it is our patriotic duty to pay more. If it means that more representation goes to Blue states, than so be it. The worst thing the Palin, teabagger folks are doing is dissenting from the democratic process. Barak was elected by one of the biggest majorities to heal our wounds.
Dissent is the enemy of democracy!
========================
Are you for real??
What I find most amazing is that the left, the total and utter hypocrites that they are, love to toss around the “majority” card when it suits them, yet they ALSO want the minority to run the show. And I don’t mean minority in relation to race. Y’all are ALL about stealing the liberties of the hard-working backbone of this country just to give to the scabs and lowlifes.
You want fair? Go out and get it your own f*cking self. Greedy loser.
Mike
May 28th, 2010
1:55 am
Searching the 1880 census, I found that the census listed the names, ages, and occupations and where they were born, of all the residents of the houshold. i found that my grandfather was a 2 year old child at that time. The present day census did not ask anything beyond what was asked 130 years ago. From what I have been able to find out these are basically the same questions that have been asked on the short form census questionair that have been asked since the country was first founded. I know that the long form is quite a bit more detailed about the household and many consider it too nosey.
Beth
May 28th, 2010
1:55 am
Joe, if that was the case, then they wouldn’t have to ASK me my race. My race and my age is none of their damn business. If it’s SIMPLY about making sure X number of people have X number of representatives, then the number in my home suffices. HOWEVER, if it’s about X number in my home are X race and that race is singled out to get more of Y’s money, then they can go to hell. And we ALL know that’s what it’s all about.
Bryan, he proved nothing. You can drink the Kool-Aid if you wish, but some of us actually think for a living. You must be a welfare recipient. Baaahhh baaaaahhhhhhh.
Beth
May 28th, 2010
1:58 am
Have you seen a long form, Mike? I have. I got one last year and refused to answer beyond the first two questions. And I WORKED the damn census that year.
I realize that the census even waaay back when asked simple questions like that, but I don’t trust today’s government and what they’re doing with the info. And yes, I’d say the same thing if Bush was in office. I don’t trust any of them.
Oh, and Bryan, can you explain why Obeyme’s Social Security card was issued out of Connecticut two years after he started working? Especially since he’s never ever lived there?
Santiago
May 28th, 2010
2:04 am
It is VERY important to have the statistics. Yeah, statistics, not ’statistics’. Try as you might, the law will not change. They need to know who and how many live where. How do you think they know how many schools, hospitals, roads, and other necessities to build and where. People are grossly negligent about their civil responsibilities. I also believe people that do not vote should be coerced in a certain way. You OWE it to your country to participate.
Angry Voter
May 28th, 2010
2:05 am
Just look at how many pedos, rapists and other convicted felons got hired by the Census under their own real names.
Disgusting.
The government creates opportunities for criminals on purpose – nobody is that stupid!
Angry Voter
May 28th, 2010
2:07 am
@ “only if invited in”
I guess you missed the 3 stories in the last two weeks of people shot by police when they refused entry to Census spies.
gr8fuldaniel
May 28th, 2010
2:22 am
Guess what….If you had mailed in the Census like a responsible citizen, THEN you wouldnt have to worry about ANY of this crap!
Wah wah wah
Bear
May 28th, 2010
2:22 am
Fillink out forms now, pliz. Zat, or goink to gulag. Is beink your choice, Comrade…
Hail labor, tovarisch!
tfb
May 28th, 2010
2:25 am
I don’t consider the Obama regime legitimate, since he is not a natural born citizen which requires both parents be US citizens and that child be born in the USA…his father was Kenyan making him to this day a British citizen. He is a usurper, not my president, he’s a criminal and I don’t want his criminal regime intruding on my life. This lawless regime does not follow the constitution, they just try to tear it and this country down, so why should we?
Black Eagle
May 28th, 2010
2:30 am
There’s one simple remedy. Resist. Fight back. Don’t allow them. Make them threaten you, demand to see it in writing, demand they bring a cop and tell the cop he had better have his facts straight or you will sue them. Make it so problematic for them to behave like bullies that they will retreat. Otherwise, watch as your freedoms evaporate one by one. Today its the census. Tomorrow its your light bulbs or toilet paper, or your guns or reading material. Don’t laugh. Speak to anyone who lived in old East Germany or the USSR, or who escaped from Cuba. Give a petty bureaucrat the “authority” and guns, and society will go fascist, Constitution be damned.
gr8fuldaniel
May 28th, 2010
2:37 am
You people cost the taxpayers money. They have hire people to come to your house….because you are too damned immature to answer a few questions, and drop it in the mailbox. FREE POSTAGE, too!
This sounds like an IQ problem. I thought you guys were against big government? You made it bigger! You all sound like spoiled Brats! Grow up!
Black Eagle
May 28th, 2010
2:39 am
Hey Brian, If GW Bush was claimed to be born in Mexico, I seriously doubt if you would accept his “birth certificate” if all he did was post it to some right-wing blog website, and have the right-wing governor of Texas declare him as a resident. The fact that B. Hussein Obama does not call up the Hawaii BVS and request 100 copies, sent to the governor and secretary of state for every state in the union, even before the election, but DOES push a phoney scannned image which anyone reading this could photoshop with a bit of practice, is proof he is hiding something. McCain produced his records. BHO hasn’t produced his BC, and nothing else such as school records, his college transcripts, his university writings and other things that would reveal him to be the big faker he is. A Kenyan Muslim-Marxist, who faked and lied his way through to the White House, courtesy of the Democrat Party which is today taken over by hard-left Marxist types. Yeah, keep voting them in, and the census working pounding on your door with a cop will become routine. Wake up Americans, your freedoms are being snatched away right under your noses.
Bob Tron
May 28th, 2010
2:40 am
Wow, the census form was incredibly non-intrusive. Facebook knows volumes more about each of us, how we’re related, what our views are, and what we buy, than the Census Bureau will ever know.
If you’ve ever done genealogy research, you can also see much of the value that comes out of these things. Why the hell would anybody be so paranoid about a census that’s happened every 10 years in the US and was set in place by our founding fathers? Sure, being skeptical is healthy. Being downright irrational is not, especially about something that’s been in place and has a 210-year track record to look upon.
tfb
May 28th, 2010
2:51 am
It’s an insulting form, as if anything European is one kind, a CRACKER and yet they break up Hispanic, which is not even a race in to 9 subtypes, Asians in to 17 subtypes. That says about what this racist usurper illegal regime thinks of European Americans in a nutshell.
Bob Tron
May 28th, 2010
2:54 am
Shamelessly ripped from Wikipedia:
In 1980, 4 FBI agents went to the Census Bureau’s Colorado Springs office with warrants to seize Census documents, but were forced to leave with nothing. Courts upheld that no agency, including the FBI, has access to Census data.
Your grocery store, Google, Facebook, THIS WEBSITE, your credit card company, your bank, your technical support contact and India, and me if you offer me just your IP address or home phone number, know more about you than this census is asking you.
It’s your patriotic duty to fill out this census, and honestly, you’re all acting like babies about it.
tfb
May 28th, 2010
2:55 am
Bob Tron only fools use facebook; its founder literally called facebook users “dumbf*cks” for trusting him with their data.
tfb
May 28th, 2010
3:00 am
Black Eagle, you’re right, that digital “thing” Obama posted Hawaii refuses to verify, it represents that he filed that info himself but as it says it was never “accepted by registrar”, and Kapiolani and the Hawaii attorney general refuses to corroborate that he was born there. NOT that it matters since a natural born citizen (US v. Wong Kim Ark, Minor v. Happersett, Article II US Constitution, SR 511, Leahy, Chertoff even Obama says so) requires 2 US citizen parents and child born on US soil. The DNC altered its certification forms to remove language that he was constitutionally eligible. Look the Dems are gloating that they got away with installing a usurper, they’ve always known–and he’s an unmitigated disaster for this country. The dems always hated the constitution, look at how they applauded Calderon who fundamentally declared war on the US.
Seth
May 28th, 2010
3:04 am
WRONG, read your facts. As one of the few enumerators that has read the employee handbook you are way off base. We may only enter a residence at the invitation of a resident over the age of 18. That is if your leadership has allowed it. Also we are not even allowed to open storm doors to make sure our notice of visits are blow away by the wind. What, in all of those rules, says that we have the authority to enter someone’s place. Yes the federal laws that empower the US Census Bureau do allow this (in a cosmic sense), the entity itself has forbidden it. What the census is fining for is the people who are so stubborn they won’t even give us a head count on their residence, which is even written into the US Constitution.
I recommend for any further article, that you do at least some research before you go spouting off. Your editor should also be fired for not fact checking this either.
Bob Tron
May 28th, 2010
3:06 am
I agree TBF, but that’s only one of the many sites and services that exist to compile information on you and they in turn sell that information to others to make a profit. Facebook is an extreme example of this by corporations looking solely to exploit your information for profit, and should be of far more concern to you than your country trying to get some very basic information so that they can do the jobs we ask of them.
Ed
May 28th, 2010
3:07 am
Oh great. Ex-cons, rapists, and general all around losers can waltz right in. What could go wrong?
Mark
May 28th, 2010
3:08 am
Someone comes in my house uninvited and without a warrant, then I treat them as a trespasser, and I don’t call 911.
Seth
May 28th, 2010
3:14 am
It’s people like Mr. Barr here that make this so much harder than it has to be. Instead of going off of hearsay / old news, why don’t you take a second to do some research. Instead of spreading lies about a division of our gov. (that most people still don’t know about. I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked “What’s the Census Bureau?”), why don’t you try and make our jobs easier, and maybe, just maybe save a few of the tax payers dollars?
Pete
May 28th, 2010
3:26 am
I apologize here and now for putting my legal weapon into the face of anyone who enters my residence without waiting for me to open the door.
Argus
May 28th, 2010
3:39 am
Nope, sorry. You’re just wrong. I personally work for the Census, and they flat out tell you in training that even if you get invited in by the owner, you do NOT set foot inside a home. More importantly, we live in a free country that has a constitution. A constitution that states quite clearly that every ten years, we will count how many people live in our free country. If the government wanted to spy on your paranoid self, there are better ways to do it than sending me to your door. Maybe sending me to wait outside with a listening device.
Murkan Mike
May 28th, 2010
3:40 am
Seth, why don’t you try and save some taxpayer money, and quit the census! No wait, that wouldn’t work, some other useless mooch would just fill your position, and waste just as much money. Hmmmmm, I guess that since I am going to have to pay for this nonsense with money stolen from me with the threat of violence, I might as well just try and make your life as miserable as possible for soaking up my tax dollars. Maybe I’ll just not answer, make you drive out 3 times, point a booger ridden finger at you, stare at your crotch and lick my lips, and give you all kinds of nonsense answers to you and the aggressive violent institution you represent.
Don’t it sink in Seth, people hate the government, and hate you for trying to make it sound legitimate. Quit mooching off of me and quit representing those who steal my money, and you won’t have to whine like a schoolgirl on the forum.
Murkan Mike
May 28th, 2010
3:42 am
That goes for you too Argus!
Bob Tron
May 28th, 2010
3:44 am
This author doesn’t have the intellect required to read the law he’s talking about. His article is false. But he loves the 3 different cookie’s he’s put onto your computer (sure, go check) and the data you’ve given him in order to submit these comments. Thanks for the ads viewed too! He’s made a bit of money off you. That information will now be bundled and sold to another company that takes your information from many different sites and sources and builds a profile on you. This is for “targeted advertising purposes only”. It’s not the government that you need to be worried about, it’s the future. Everything is going this route, and the only way to avoid it is to live in a shack in the woods.
Your best bet is to learn about how this information is collected, what they’re looking for, and what you personally don’t want to be out there for everyone to see. You’ll never avoid it.
You Lie
May 28th, 2010
3:59 am
TITLE 13 > CHAPTER 7 > SUBCHAPTER II > § 223
§ 223. Refusal, by owners, proprietors, etc., to assist census employees
Whoever, being the owner, proprietor, manager, superintendent, or agent of any hotel, apartment house, boarding or lodging house, tenement, or other building, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary or by any other officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof, acting under the instructions of the Secretary, to furnish the names of the occupants of such premises, or to give free ingress thereto and egress therefrom to any duly accredited representative of such Department or bureau or agency thereof, so as to permit the collection of statistics with respect to any census provided for in subchapters I and II of chapter 5 of this title, or any survey authorized by subchapter IV or V of such chapter insofar as such survey relates to any of the subjects for which censuses are provided by such subchapters I and II, including, when relevant to the census or survey being taken or made, the proper and correct enumeration of all persons having their usual place of abode in such premises, shall be fined not more than $500.
My Two Census » Blog Archive » Bob Barr claims Census workers can enter your home when you’re not around.
May 28th, 2010
3:59 am
[...] appears to be idiotic, plain and simple. Yet this Bob Barr fellow who is a former Congressman and now writes for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution seems to believe what he’s writing, and he’s got a lot of comments in his comments [...]
Jeff
May 28th, 2010
4:05 am
Yes, good luck. Also, I went to the training for this because I am broke, and they tell you straight up not to risk your life.
If you come to my place and say you are authorized to enter, I will say I am authorized to beat your ass- then you can enter.
Lloyd
May 28th, 2010
4:14 am
I work for the Census Bureau in a lower level of management and can tell you this man is a liar. He gave no citations. He gave no concrete examples. He gave not even a quote from an unnamed ‘knowledgable source.” We live in a country that is free enough that you can print lies and get away with it.
Taylor
May 28th, 2010
4:24 am
I, like many people, am also a temp census worker, and can confirm that the points in this article are false.
This is classic scare-tactics, and those that give census workers a hard time, are really messed up in the head.
Dennis Boylan
May 28th, 2010
4:34 am
If you don’t allow Census workers to enter your apartment terrorist will fly planes into them. Just leave milk and cookies for them.
David Roberts
May 28th, 2010
4:38 am
Well that’s what this law says. Since the efforts of the Administration to hand the census over to ACORN and their ilk, and the continued intimidation of the SEIU thugs, and to enlist the aid of schoolchildren to help complete the census taking, what used to be a minor annoyance has in part seemed to become a major intrusion. Here’s the excerpt that at best is a little vague, and at worst it like the flag@whitehouse.gov email address for citizens to report their neighbors who were disagreeing with the Obamacare plan. If this administration hadn’t been so intrusive with a number of different unprecedented efforts previous to this, I don’t think you’d see the ‘paranoia’ at such a high level.
” to furnish the names of the occupants of such premises, or to give free ingress thereto and egress therefrom to any duly accredited representative of such Department or bureau or agency thereof, so as to permit the collection of statistics”
P F
May 28th, 2010
4:40 am
How does that not conflict with the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of illegal search and seizure?
truthseeker17
May 28th, 2010
4:46 am
This is all getting so out of control. I actually looked up laws on immigration to Canada. I can’t go though because I don’t have a college degree or family that live there. Something is seriously wrong here. I would happily pay the 500.00 to keep big brother out of my home. There is no such thing as freedom anymore unless you quit society and go live in the woods.
Katie
May 28th, 2010
4:47 am
Wow, that’s a retarded article. Oh, and btw, they used to be able to ask how many idiots and retards you had in your house. But right, “increasingly intrusive”. Compared to the census forms of the 1800’s, the form today is bland and vague.
But first you would have had to read history instead of making things up. I assume, like the author, most people are too obtuse and limited to actually read anything at all beyond what’s fed to them.
Yes, Author, you’d be checked “retard” on the form.
Patriot_Act
May 28th, 2010
4:47 am
Based on Matt Drudge’s journalistic methods, I could easily post a link titled “Rush Limbaugh is Seeking a Sex Change?” and link it to any type of article. Also, Bobby Barr must really miss the limelight.
Richard Jones
May 28th, 2010
4:56 am
In my community, we by law have the right to use deadly force to meet any unauthorized entry into our homes. As we discussed this at work,we debated which law would take priority, it was decided that the law of physics would take priority, while the federal and the local would be debated endlessly and a census worker somewhere else would need to use his eraser that day.
Richard Jones
May 28th, 2010
4:57 am
note – authorized = authorized by the lawful resident.
Craig
May 28th, 2010
5:07 am
No offense, but prove that this info is true….
Can you cite the source that you got this information from? If you don’t back up your statement with sources, it just looks like contrived commentary…
Binge Franklin
May 28th, 2010
5:16 am
Geechee, If you and your “enumerators” have such impressive resumes, why are you working for the census? Don’t misunderstand me. I am not insensitive to people who through no fault of their own lost their job. I just don’t believe you. Furthermore, those credentials mean nothing when you enter someone’s home behind their back. Doctors, PhD’s, CEOs, and many other “professionals” are in prison for rape, murder, theft, white-collar crime, etc. And any professional who has worked with professionals knows this best. Your reliance on such labels to assert non-goon status is highly suspect.
Bruce Farley
May 28th, 2010
5:22 am
this guy is nuts as a census worker we are told never to go in anyones home!
Me
May 28th, 2010
5:27 am
Bang Bang. One less government employee. They deserve what they get.
Census worker
May 28th, 2010
5:28 am
Thanks you jackass! I live in a rural community and am working for the census. I am just trying to get a job done and make a little money to help pay my bills. The outright lies you’ve written and the ignorant hicks that have responded here make me fear for my life. So far, I feel I’ve been fortunate, that I haven’t run across anyone that has been that rude or dangerous. But it is exceedingly irresponsible of this author to post this crap. If I get shot on this job, his name will be on the list of people getting sued for inciting my assailant.