• Home
  • Independent Voter News
  • Quizzes
  • Election Dissection
  • Sections
  • Events
  • Directory
  • About Us
  • Glossary
  • Opinion
  • Campaign Finance
  • Redistricting
  • Civic Ed
  • Voting
  • Fact Check
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Subscriptions
  • Log in
Leveraging Our Differences
  • news & opinion
    • Big Picture
      • Civic Ed
      • Ethics
      • Leadership
      • Leveraging big ideas
      • Media
    • Business & Democracy
      • Corporate Responsibility
      • Impact Investment
      • Innovation & Incubation
      • Small Businesses
      • Stakeholder Capitalism
    • Elections
      • Campaign Finance
      • Independent Voter News
      • Redistricting
      • Voting
    • Government
      • Balance of Power
      • Budgeting
      • Congress
      • Judicial
      • Local
      • State
      • White House
    • Justice
      • Accountability
      • Anti-corruption
      • Budget equity
    • Columns
      • Beyond Right and Left
      • Civic Soul
      • Congress at a Crossroads
      • Cross-Partisan Visions
      • Democracy Pie
      • Our Freedom
  • Pop Culture
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
      • American Heroes
      • Ask Joe
      • Celebrity News
      • Comedy
      • Dance, Theatre & Film
      • Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging
      • Faithful & Mindful Living
      • Music, Poetry & Arts
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • Your Take
  • events
  • About
      • Mission
      • Advisory Board
      • Staff
      • Contact Us
Sign Up
  1. Home>
  2. Big Picture>
  3. big picture>

Even without a citizenship question, fear complicates 2020 census

Sara Swann
Geoff West
https://twitter.com/saramswann?lang=en
July 03, 2019
Even without a citizenship question, fear complicates 2020 census

People gather in front of the Supreme Court in late June as the justices announce their decision blocking a citizenship question from being included in the 2020 census.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Civil rights groups celebrated the government's decision to throw out the citizenship question from the 2020 census. But some worry the damage has already been done.

Simply the notion of having a citizenship question on the census could still deter residents, particularly those from immigrant communities, from participating next year. The mistrust and misinformation surrounding the census was further amplified Wednesday when President Trump tweeted that news reports indicating the Commerce Department had dropped the question were "FAKE!"


His tweet came less than 24 hours after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, put out a statement saying the agency had already "started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question."

The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census… https://t.co/93mOeniO05
— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump) 1562166400.0

The Census Bureau has estimated that the inclusion of a citizenship question would lead to an undercount of 6.5 million people. Since a large portion of people at risk of being undercounted are in the Latino community, the National Association of Latino Elected Officials Educational Fund has been working to identify and mitigate issues with next year's census. That hasn't changed.

"Our work mobilizing the nation's second largest population group remains more important than ever as we attempt to rebuild the trust that has been eroded over the course of this struggle," Arturo Vargas, CEO of NALEO Educational Fund, said in a statement following the Commerce Department's decision to disregard the citizenship question.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

Rebuilding trust around the census within the Latino community is going to be a difficult task, though — possibly more so now that Trump has added to the confusion. NALEO Educational Fund's nationwide ¡Hágase Contar! (Make Yourself Count!) campaign is working to communicate and engage with Latinos about the importance of participating in the 2020 census. The campaign is running a toll-free bilingual hotline — 877-EL-CENSO (877-352-3676) — to provide information and answer questions about the census.

The democracy reform advocacy group Common Cause is also conducting a project, Let's Count Everyone, to ensure participation and accuracy with the 2020 census. Through volunteer Complete Count Committees, Common Cause hopes to connect with residents and work with local governments to increase awareness of the census. These CCCs will develop plans for how to best tackle the census-related issues unique to the communities they cover.

"We still need to pour every ounce of energy into mobilizing every neighbor and all communities to complete the 2020 Census — we cannot allow these partisan attempts to politicize the 2020 Census deter a full count of every person in the United States as called for in the Constitution," Keshia Morris, census project manager for Common Cause, said in a statement.

House investigation continues

Meanwhile, House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings said Tuesday his committee would continue its investigation into the origins of the citizenship question.

In June, the committee voted to hold Attorney General William Barr and Ross in contempt of Congress for failing to provide requested materials related to the Trump administration's efforts to include the citizenship question. The subpoenaed documents are primarily memos and letters exchanged between the Justice and Commerce departments.

The contempt vote passed shortly after President Trump asserted executive privilege over the subpoenaed material and follows accusations by committee staff that the White House "directly and aggressively" interfered with the committee's interview last month with Kris Kobach, the former Kansas secretary of state.

The committee requested the interview with Kobach, a Republican, after he told reporters he proposed a citizenship question to Trump shortly after the inauguration and had conversations about it with Ross several months before the Justice Department asked the Commerce Department to include it on the 2020 questionnaire.

Ross originally told Congress the Justice Department asked Commerce to add the question so it could better enforce the Voting Rights Act. That testimony was largely discredited, however, after evidence emerged that showed Ross asked the Justice Department to make the request.

Last week, the Supreme Court barred the government from including the citizenship question based on Ross' claim that the Justice Department needed the data to enforce voting rights. Chief Justice John Roberts called the justification "contrived," but the ruling left open the possibility the Trump administration could return to the court with a different argument for including the question.

In a statement Tuesday, Cummings said he was "encouraged" the Trump administration decided to drop the question and allow the census to move forward but vowed the committee would continue its pursuit of the subpoenaed documents.

"The Trump Administration put our country through more than a year of wasted time and squandered resources – all in the service of an illegal attempt to add a discriminatory question based on a pretext," the Maryland Democrat said. "The Attorney General and the Secretary of Commerce must now turn over all of the documents our Committee has subpoenaed on a bipartisan basis."

From Your Site Articles
  • For Latino officials, census concerns go beyond citizenship question ... ›
  • Why the Supreme Court asked for an explanation of the 2020 ... ›
  • Mapmakers will have to scramble if Trump gets census delay - The Fulcrum ›
  • New York may allow non-citizens to vote in city elections - The Fulcrum ›
Related Articles Around the Web
  • Census to leave citizenship question off 2020 questionnaire ... ›
  • The 2020 census citizenship question fight, explained - Vox ›
big picture
Get some Leverage Sign up for The Fulcrum Newsletter
Follow
Contributors

Are large donor networks still needed to win in a fairer election system?

Paige Chan

Independent voters want to be heard. Is anybody listening?

David Thornburgh
John Opdycke

The U.S. has been seeking the center since the days of Teddy Roosevelt

Dave Anderson

Imperfection and perseverance

Jeff Clements

We’ve expanded the Supreme Court before. It’s time to do so again.

Anushka Sarkar

The ‘great replacement theory’ is nonsense

Debilyn Molineaux
latest News

Americans want action on gun control, but the Senate can’t move forward

David Meyers
3h

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Our Staff
8h

Nearly 20 states have restricted private funding of elections

David Meyers
24 May

Video: Will Trump run in 2024?

Our Staff
24 May

The state of voting: May 23, 2022

Our Staff
23 May

Trump looms large over Tuesday’s primaries

Richard Perrins
23 May
Videos

Video: Helping loved ones divided by politics

Our Staff

Video: What happened in Virginia?

Our Staff

Video: Infrastructure past, present, and future

Our Staff

Video: Beyond the headlines SCOTUS 2021 - 2022

Our Staff

Video: Should we even have a debt limit

Our Staff

Video: #ListenFirstFriday Yap Politics

Our Staff
Podcasts

Podcast: Did economists move the Democrats to the right?

Our Staff
02 May

Podcast: The future of depolarization

Our Staff
11 February

Podcast: Sore losers are bad for democracy

Our Staff
20 January

Deconstructed Podcast from IVN

Our Staff
08 November 2021
Recommended
Shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas

Americans want action on gun control, but the Senate can’t move forward

Congress
Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Podcast: Why conspiracy theories thrive in both democracies and autocracies

Big Picture
First-ever majority-female New York city council

Are large donor networks still needed to win in a fairer election system?

Campaign Finance
Independent voters want to be heard. Is anybody listening?

Independent voters want to be heard. Is anybody listening?

Voting
Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg

Nearly 20 states have restricted private funding of elections

State
Video: Will Trump run in 2024?

Video: Will Trump run in 2024?

Elections