IMMIGRATION BATTLE
Raoul counting on census flap to help define AG race
State Sen. Kwame Raoul, the Democratic nominee for Illinois attorney general, joined his party’s “chorus of opposition” Thursday to the Trump administration’s plans to include a question about citizenship in the 2020 census.
Raoul said the move is illegal and would undermine efforts to get an accurate census count because the citizenship question will discourage some immigrants from participating.
By jumping on the issue early, Raoul is seeking in part to draw policy differences between himself and Republican nominee Erika Harold, but also to connect her more closely to Trump. Harold’s campaign declined to respond to questions Thursday about her position on the census dispute.
In a state where Donald Trump is regarded as largely unpopular, any opportunity for Illinois Democrats to legitimately make him the issue in the 2018 mid- term election is seen as a plus, and the president continues to oblige.
Census data is used to allocate federal funding and to determine the number of representatives and electoral votes apportioned to each state.
That makes undercounting a particular concern in states such as Illinois with large urban areas that are home to a major concentration of foreign- born immigrants such as Chicago.
Raoul was joined at a news conference by representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and immigrant rights advocates who say Trump’s anti- immigrant rhetoric and policies have made it more likely undocumented immigrants will be afraid to participate in the census if they are asked to identify themselves as non- citizens.
In a separate appearance across town, U. S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D- Ill., said that’s Trump’s intent.
“It is a conscious effort to discourage minorities and undocumented from register- ing under our census. That’s it,” he told the Latino Policy Forum. “And it is another effort to suppress voting and suppress political representation. “
Both Durbin and Raoul applauded Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, who has said she will join a multi- state lawsuit against the Trump administration to make sure immigrant communities are counted accurately.
The Census Bureau move is only the latest policy of the Trump administration to prompt lawsuits from state attorneys general seeking to block him.
Raoul said the lawsuits have highlighted the importance of electing an attorney general who will act in opposition to Trump when necessary.
The same holds true for governors, argues Democratic gubernatorial nominee J. B. Pritzker, who seized on the census question as the latest issue on which he says Gov. Bruce Rauner has refused to stand up to Trump on issues of importance to Illinois.
The governor typically tries to sidestep Trump- related questions. In this case, Rauner actually supports Trump.
“Governor Rauner believes it is reasonable to collect accurate citizenship data for the census,” a spokesperson for the governor said without further explanation.
Democrats immediately accused the governor of using the census dispute to try to win back some of the conservative voters he lost during a divisive primary battle with state Rep. Jeanne Ives.
In a statement released by his campaign, Pritzker accused Rauner of being Trump’s “local partner.”
“By using the U. S. Census as a political weapon, this bigoted president wants to keep immigrant families in the shadows,” he said. “As Trump and Rauner seek to divide and attack, I will make Illinois a welcoming state and protect every resident as governor.”
Raoul, the son of Haitian immigrants, said he introduced a resolution in the Senate a month ago to put the Legislature on record in opposition to the citizenship question.
He acknowledged that the Census Bureau has asked citizenship questions in the past, but said “a lot of things were done historically that were illegal.”
In announcing his decision to include a citizenship question on the census, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said there is no evidence that asking about citizenship status “would materially decrease response rates.”