After much contention, a New York judge has blocked the Commerce Department from including a question that would have asked whether or not an individual was a citizen of the United States in the upcoming census. The ruling is a large victory for advocacy groups and local officials that have been asking for the question not to be included in the census. It has not been since 1950 that the question of citizenship has been included in a census. The decision outlined that the question would make it so that the Commerce Department would not be fulfilling its constitutional duty to count every single person in the United States, regardless of citizenship, because people in the United States illegally would not be inclined answer the census. Analysts believe the decision was motivated both by Republicans wanting more representation, illegal immigrants tend to live in areas with a Democratic majority so the representation of those areas would be limited, and by the president wanting account of non-citizens living in the United States for the purpose of deporting them. The Commerce Department argued that the question would be necessary to uphold section two of the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting practices that discriminate on the basis of race, since this would be essential data for the Justice Department. This claim turned out to be false because it was revealed that the Justice Department had never requested the question to be included, rejecting what Commerce Department claimed. According to the judge rendering the decision, this is likely to be challenged in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and later the Supreme Court.
- Do you believe the Commerce Department should be allowed to include a question in the census that asks about the responder's citizenship status?
- Would the inclusion of the question provide valuable information for preventing discrimination?
- How would a question about citizenship on the census affect the outcome of the census?
Original Article (New York Times): Court Blocks Trump Administration From Asking About Citizenship in Census
Firstly, the issue with the citizenship question will not only under count illegal immigrants, but legal ones too. "the question could deter not just noncitizens and immigrants from completing the census form, but Hispanics and others of foreign descent." The commerce department should be allowed to do so, but only if they can provide a real reason for doing so, and demonstrate that it would improve data returned from the census while not having a large negative impact on the census, none of which were done in this case. This question will provide some valuable information, but not near enough to compare to the consequences of leaving it in. The question would make many people less likely to answer out of fear of the government using the information (which wouldn't happen).
ReplyDeleteI believe that the question of citizenship shouldn't be included in the census. There are many reasons for this, but the most important reason is that the census has to be an account of all people living in the US, not just citizens. This is because the census is used in land planning, gerrymandering, and redistricting, so the population must be as accurate as possible so each group gets the most representation they can have. A question including someone's citizenship could be daunting to someone that doesn't have such status and may refuse to take a census. This will lead to a misrepresentation of the population.
ReplyDeleteIncluding the citizenship question on the 2020 census would cause an inaccurate count of all people residing in the United States and cause Republicans to disproportionally benefit from the census for representation in the House of Representatives, since illegal immigrants as well as noncitizens (usually members of the Democratic party) would be disinclined to answer the census. This would have resounding repercussions on community planning, representation of certain areas in government, and the accuracy of statistics about the people in the U.S. In regards to question 2, I'm not sure how the Justice Department would plan to use this information to prevent discrimination. Whatever it was, it wasn't enough to convince the judge.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of the census is to determine the population of the US, not to determine the legality of someone's stay in the country. The census is essential to successful elections and other data related matters. It seems to me that the Republicans are the only ones that will benefit from this regulation and their greediness for some clout would cost the Commerce Department from collecting accurate data. Not only would this rule affect those that are illegally in the US, but other people of color and immigrants may boycott the census thus prohibiting the Commerce Department from acquiring the right information.
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