New year gratitude: Trump missed key Census deadline

Donald Trump is desperately trying to get in one last jab, another poke to the soul of America before he exits the White House.

First glance, his attempt might seem innocuous to many.

But Trump’s obsession with the U.S. census shows how focused he is on dragging the nation backward, toward our racist legacies and self-destructive eras.

Consider how long it took before the nation stopped counting Black people who were enslaved as three fifths of a man, with the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868.

It wasn’t until 1924 that Native Americans were considered full U.S. citizens.

Now it’s 2021. And Trump still doesn’t believe that everyone living on U.S. soil matters equally.

He’s a sorter. A man with a mentality that measures the value of others primarily by what they can do for him.

Immigrants, especially those without legal standing, fall at the bottom of Trump’s crass pecking order. He’s long tried to keep them from being fully counted for all roles of the U.S. census, a stand in opposition to what the Constitution has always required, since the first census in 1790.

Ignoring the presence of all immigrants would harm cities. Communities don’t get to pretend people don’t exist, regardless of political feelings surrounding immigration law.

About $1.5 trillion in federal spending is determined by population counts. Everyone needs to be counted.

The role of the U.S. Census Bureau is massive, a tremendous undertaking that often goes unacknowledged. That might be one reason why Trump was able to toy with its role for perceived political gain.

Trump’s reasoning, or lack of, is due to his argument that some immigrants shouldn’t be represented in the numbers used to appropriate seats in Congress and to calculate votes of the Electoral College. His is an unconstitutional stand that seeks to take seats away from immigrant-heavy, Democratic-leaning states.

As of Dec. 31, though, the calendar might have stopped Trump.

At the end of the year, government officials missed a deadline to get the state counts reported to the president, who then sends them on to Congress. Primarily, this was due to delays caused by the pandemic.

Time was also lost to Trump’s tinkering with census timelines and policy as well as legal challenges to that July memo. Consider that to be karma.

With the end-of-the-year deadline missed, President-elect

Joe Biden might be in office when the job is completed. Biden clearly understands the many reasons for accurate census counts, including undocumented people.

For those who grouse at the term, understand that it’s accurate. The flippant “illegals,” isn’t even grammatical. That’s a modifier, it needs a noun.

A person’s legal status can shift with the flick of pen, an administrative ruling granted. It’s a fluid condition of paperwork, not a statement of worth.

A cruel hallmark of the Trump administration is his use of executive orders and memos like a scalpel; dissecting long-term public policy, legal precedent and even attempting to undercut the U.S. Constitution.

The 14th Amendment, which was added to address the sin of slavery, clearly states that the count is to include the “whole number of persons in each state.”

That means everyone. Post President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, that nod of respect, to acknowledge people’s presence, will be restored.