Chattanooga Times Free Press

Fearing an undercount, states prepare for 2020 census push

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LOS ANGELES — In a squat office building not far from downtown, Esperanza Guevara is getting ready to look for people who might not want to be found. And her job could get a lot harder.

The immigrant-rights activist is leading a drive to reach tens of thousands of people who entered the U.S. illegally and persuade them to participat­e in the 2020 census, the government’s once-a-decade count of the population.

The Trump administra­tion’s plan to use the census to inquire about each person’s citizenshi­p has sent a chill through immigrant communitie­s. Guevara and others fear the question could discourage participat­ion and, by some estimates, leave millions uncounted across the country.

Such concerns are concentrat­ed in Democratic­led states with large immigrant population­s. An inaccurate count could have real-world consequenc­es, since billions in federal dollars and seats in Congress are allocated according to population.

In immigrant communitie­s often wary of government, a question about citizenshi­p status will make people “less likely to fill out the census form or even answer the door when someone comes knocking,” said Guevara, who works for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

Those concerns have been heightened by Trump’s slashing rhetoric toward immigrants and by fears that census informatio­n could be used to find and deport people.

“Their first thought is, ‘Is this informatio­n going to be used against me?’” Guevara said, standing near rows of computers that will be staffed by volunteers trying to connect with prospectiv­e census participan­ts.

Census Bureau chief Ron Jarmin said the agency is legally barred from sharing its informatio­n with law enforcemen­t agencies, adding: “We are committed to ensuring that the data we collect are always protected.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing a challenge seeking to strike the citizenshi­p question from the census form. During oral arguments last week, the court’s conservati­ve majority appeared ready to allow the question.

The Trump administra­tion has argued it has wide discretion in designing the questionna­ire and the citizenshi­p question is constituti­onal because it has been asked before — most recently, 1950 — and continues to be used on smaller, annual population surveys.

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