This week I went to my mailbox and got an alarming item. The return address said:

2025 NATIONAL CENSUS
U.S. Citizen Census Record Transmission
Form 1983 (2025) 72 hour return enclosed
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
www.judicialwatch.org

The inside was still scarier. The header said:

2025 NATIONAL CENSUS
ON THE IMMEDIATE DEPORTATION OF AT LEAST 11 MILLION
ILLEGAL ALIENS OUT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Elsewhere in the text, the mail refers to the form as the “2025 NATIONAL DEPORTATION CENSUS,” in boldface and underlined. On closer inspection, though, the mail turned out not to be from the US Census or any government agency, but from an organization called Judicial Watch. It wasn’t a census of any kind, governmental or private, and it had nothing to do with watching the judiciary. Rather, it was a rigged poll of the kind many organizations use to generate responses they can cite to show broad public support for whatever they want to do. The last “question,” as usual, was a request for money.

The effort to deceive is obvious, though it may stay just barely within the law. “National Census,” “Official Use Only,” and the meaningless form number are clearly an attempt to make the unwary recipient think it’s from the U.S. Census. With the Trump government pressuring every government office to give DOGE and ICE confidential information (the latest I’ve seen is the Post Office), it isn’t implausible that the Census Bureau, with its power to command responses, would play such a role.

The inside header is clearly designed to scare people. I thought for a moment that the Census Bureau was demanding that I prove my citizenship or inform on my neighbors. The impression didn’t last long for me, but others could easily be fooled. Once they get to the questions, they might wonder why the Census Bureau wants them to report their beliefs, but people fall for less plausible schemes than that.

What is the aim of all this? Maybe it’s to con Trumpists into thinking that the mailing is coming from an official government source, so they’ll answer the questions and send money. It sounds too stupid to work. But the basic fact is that Judicial Watch is sending out mailings designed to look as if they’re official inquiries from the U.S. Census. They don’t even provide a paid reply envelope, so I’d have to expend a stamp to send them a nasty note. Hang onto the letter as evidence or shred it, but don’t give them information.

Update: A few years ago, Judicial Watch sued the Census Bureau in an attempt to force it to employ only US citizens. Maybe this mailing is an attempt to make the government agency look bad? Also of possible interest: In 2020, the Republican National Committee used a similar trick.