Down for the count?

The Constitution mandates that the government conduct a census every 10 years. The original purpose was to ensure the fair apportionment of federal taxes and that citizens had equal representation in Congress.

Of course, the census today has become far more detailed than the founders envisioned, collecting a treasure trove of information on virtually every aspect of the American condition.

But Census Bureau officials are worried as they prepare for their 2010 count. It seems that illegal immigrants often seek to stay at arm's length from the government -- for obvious reasons. And immigration "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," The Associated Press reported last week.

Read that passage again.

The Census Bureau actually wants immigration officials to take the year off in 2010 so illegal aliens won't be afraid to answer the door when a volunteer shows up to do a head count.

What next? Should the FBI quit pursuing criminals in 2010 so they'll be more comfortable answering a census taker's questions? Should the IRS temporarily cease chasing scofflaws so they'll be more eager to fill out the Census Bureau's long form?

Now a cynic might question whether Census Bureau officials really have anything to worry about, given the fact that immigration officials have rarely been accused of being too overzealous in their efforts to secure the nation's borders.

Touche.

But with the polarized political climate surrounding the issue of illegal immigrants, the pressure continues to mount on those charged with enforcing the nation's laws to actually do something. Thus, immigration officials last week dismissed the Census Bureau's idea.

"We won't entertain any request to scale back our efforts," Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Kelly Nantel said Friday. "I don't want there to be any question in the American people's mind as to whether or not ICE would suspend enforcement efforts. The answer to that is emphatically no."

Let's hope we can count on that.