Question the question
The U.S. Census is as close to a sacred trust as we have in America, ensuring that every woman, man and child gets counted every decade to ensure proportionate representation as prescribed in the Constitution. Or just another political plaything, in the book of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. He insists on adding a question ascertaining citizenship to the upcoming 2020 Census, putting the reliability of the whole shebang at risk while setting up his home state of New York, and every other state with large numbers of immigrants, for a drubbing.
Smaller Census surveys already ask about citizenship, as they should. But not since Truman was President has the form that every household in America is legally obligated to fill out and return — the no-frills headcount that determines the distribution of congressional districts, federal spending and more — demanded immigration information.
Immigrants are known to be less likely to fill out their Census forms than citizens; undocumented immigrants, even less likely. Adding a question on citizenship on the main-event Census even as federal immigration authorities step up sweeps and deportations is begging for an undercount.
Even less believable than Ross’ claim that adding a citizenship question won’t change the response rate is his claim that he must add the question to provide sufficient data to enable the Department of Justice to enforce the Voting Rights Act on behalf of disenfranchised minorities. At his confirmation hearings, Attorney General Jeff Sessions swatted away the very same Voting Rights Act as “intrusive.”
If there’s disenfranchisement to worry about, it’ll stem straight from the Census undercounts that will result from undocumented respondents unwilling to confess their immigration status to the federal government.
Most of the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants live in cities — none more than the 1.2 million in ours. The lower the Census count, the fewer the Congressional districts, the lower the federal funding for schools and housing and more.
The statistician’s pencil, weaponized.