On Friday, a Census Bureau panel of experts said the decision to include the citizenship question was based on flawed logic. The U.S. Census Bureau reported in a September memo that its surveyors were encountering significant resistance from immigrants about providing personal information to the government because they feared it would not be kept confidential.
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The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Tom Carper (D-DE), and Gary Peters (D-MI). The department has relied on estimates of USA citizens based on the American Community Survey, an annual survey the Census Bureau conducts with a smaller sample of about 3.5 million participants, since the law was enacted.
“We already strongly suspect that urban populations like Brooklyn have been chronically undercounted, and President Trump’s call for a citizenship question in the 2020 US Census will further undercut the accuracy of this critical count by discouraging the participation of immigrant Americans”.
“Fouling” the Census is the way The Washington Post described the administration’s plan.
That question is are you a citizen or not?
Representative Vicente Gonzalez of the 15th District of Texas, announced that local measures would be taken to combat the manner in which the Census will be carried out, “establishing for the first time an office of the Census in the Valley to assure a better counting in the area”. Which brings us to what may be the more insidious objective of the citizenship question: a move by an increasingly nativist administration to more directly tie political representation to citizenship. According to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, this was requested by the Justice Department in order to help enforce the Voting Rights Act and prevent racial discrimination when it comes to voting.
A coalition of attorneys general voiced their opposition to the citizenship question because it would “disproportionately harm states and cities with large immigrant communities” by threatening those areas’ representation in Congress and their share of federal funds.
They also say immigrants most often are Democrats, which means Republicans would emerge with more political clout.
Did did you know that in 2016 women made up about 16 percent of the active-duty military and there were 1.6 million female veterans living in the United States and Puerto Rico. “With a growing Latino population in the county, this is a direct assault on those folks participating in the Census”.
Critics disagree. The former Census Bureau directors said they were “deeply concerned” the untested question would impact the rate, quality and truthfulness of responses. It is, quite literally, time for North Carolinians to stand up and be counted. One of the significant challenges of every Census is overcoming anxiety and suspicion among hard-to-count populations, especially new immigrants seeking refuge in America.
During World War I, the Census Bureau shared with the military the names of men who were of draft age. The Census Bureau has been operating without a permanent Director since the previous director resigned on June 30, 2017.
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There is no good reason not to answer the census, whether one is here legally or illegally. “The 2020 Census is easy, safe and important”.
