Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Michigan

There are very few things American law requires us to do, but answering the census is one of them. You must indeed answer the questions that were put to you, and you must do so truthfully. I understand that you don't want to do this verbally with a census worker, but that's how the census works when someone either doesn't respond on time or sends back an incomplete form.

Please bear in mind that the census bureau is *very* serious about protecting the privacy of responses. The information you reveal will never be available to anyone but the census bureau. The bureau does release statistical information about responses in the aggregate, but it will not disclose any individual person's responses under any circumstances. The IRS can't get them, and neither can the ICE (which used to be called the INS). They can't be subpoenaed in either civil or criminal cases. They aren't available to people conducting background checks. Even Homeland Security can't see them. I hope this will make you feel more comfortable answering the census-taker's questions.