After controversially dropping a proposed question about sexual orientation and gender identity from the 2020 Census last year, the U.S. Census Bureau relented and put it back. Whether the swift response to President Trump’s decision to reinstate a citizenship question that was discontinued in 1950 will achieve similar changes, however, remains to be seen. Even so, the state of California did promptly file a lawsuit against the Trump administration late Monday after the Commerce Department’s announcement. As a result, it seems the president’s ongoing immigration battle will continue through at least 2020.
According to CNN, the U.S. Census Bureau — which falls under the Commerce Department’s umbrella — announced the change at the request of the Justice Department, which claims “it was needed to better enforce the Voting Rights Act.” Trump’s re-election campaign, which is already in full swing, supported the change in a recent email:
“The President wants the 2020 United States Census to ask people whether or not they are citizens. In another era, this would be COMMON SENSE… but 19 attorneys general said they will fight the President if he dares to ask people if they are citizens. The President wants to know if you’re on his side,” the email said.
In a statement, the Commerce Department said “[t]he citizenship question will be the same as the one that is asked on the yearly American Community Survey,” and will follow the model established by a similar question asked on “almost every decennial census” between 1820 and 1950. Unsurprisingly, however, the announcement isn’t without its detractors, like Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law President Kristen Clarke, who told CNN “[t]his is an arbitrary and untested decision that all but guarantees that the Census will not produce a full and accurate count of the population as the constitution requires.”
What’s more, the Washington Post reports that not long after the White House’s announcement was made official on Monday, the state of California filed a lawsuit against the administration over the matter. “It is long settled that all persons residing in the United States — citizens and non-citizens alike — must be counted to fulfill the Constitution’s ‘actual Enumeration’ mandate,” read the lawsuit. The Post notes that the lawsuit could be “the start of what is likely to be a broader battle… that pits the administration against many Democratic states.”
(Via CNN and Washington Post)