They can’t even get census right
Of all the federal government’s functions, the decennial census is one of the most straightforward. Since the beginning of the republic, all it requires is dispatching enough people in the field every 10 years to get an accurate count of how many live in the United States. Period.
But the census is also one of government’s most important functions, since it determines who gets what slice of the federal dollar pie. For cities and states, money for most essential services is divided up and distributed according to population totals as determined by the census.
Yes, the lowly census — so straightforward, so bureaucratic, so non-complicated, so automatic and so important. Yet the Trump administration is still messing it up.
The Commerce Department announced this week that the Census Bureau will add one more question to the 2020 census: “Are you, or are you not, a citizen of the United States?” Sounds innocent, but it’s not. In fact, it undermines the entire purpose and validity of the census.
For starters, let’s be clear. This is not a demographic question. It was first proposed to President Trump shortly after his inauguration by Kansas secretary of state and anti-immigrant crusader Kris Kobach, and then forced on the Census Bureau by the Justice Department.
No, this is a political question, part of the Trump administration’s all-out war on immigrants: the Muslim ban; the wall; unleashing ICE agents for midnight raids; escalating deportations; killing the Dreamers program; shutting down sanctuary cities; suing California and now hijacking the census.
What’s wrong with adding a question about citizenship to the census? At least three things. First, that’s not what the census is all about. The Constitution requires that every resident of the United States be counted every 10 years. Every resident, not every citizen. On its face, counting just citizens, not all residents, is unconstitutional.
Plus, just two years ago, in Evenwel v. Abbott, the Supreme Court ruled that political districts must be drawn to reflect the total number of residents; again, the total number of residents, not the total number of citizens. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote for the majority: “Nonvoters have an important stake in many policy debates — children, their parents, even their grandparents, for example, have a stake in a strong public-education system — and in receiving constituent services, such as help navigating public-benefits bureaucracies.”
Second problem. Knowing that answering “no” on the citizenship question could lead to deportation for themselves or family members, many immigrants will refuse to have anything to do with the census. That will result in lower participation and, eventually, an inaccurate count — which will adversely impact government decisions for the next decade.
As noted above, it’s the population count that determines the allocation of most federal funds. How much are cities or states eligible to receive for new fire trucks, ambulances, snowplows, clinics, public schools or road repairs? In both blue states and red states, it all depends on the census. A lower count means fewer federal dollars.
That’s not all. Since political districts are drawn to reflect the number of residents, a lower count could also mean fewer members of Congress — again, in blue states like California or red states like Arizona and Texas, which could lose two congressional seats if the Trump plan goes through.
Citing the adverse impact on vital public services, 12 states, led by California, immediately filed a lawsuit to block addition of the citizenship question to the census. But the Trump administration, even while acknowledging it could hurt red states as well as blue, fell back on two laughable arguments for not backing down.
We must find how many noncitizens are here, they say, to protect the Voting Rights Act. Are they kidding? Not only is there zero evidence that noncitizens are voting, but, having done everything in their power under Jeff Sessions to gut the Voting Rights Act, Trumpers can’t now pretend to be its savior.
The Justice Department also argues that since the census did contain a citizenship question from 1820 through 1950, adding it back is no big deal, which is equally absurd. There are a lot of things we used to do in 1950, like segregated schools, which we no longer do. This should be one of them.
Let’s be honest. What’s this really about? Donald Trump wants to use the census to help hunt down everybody who’s here illegally — so he can round up and deport them.