Mayor wants Santa Feans to oppose census question.
Mayor Alan Webber will encourage Santa Fe residents to oppose the Trump administration’s plan to include a citizenship question on the 2020 census.
Webber on Wednesday night introduced a resolution that would, if adopted by the City Council, express that the city “firmly” opposes the citizenship question, which critics say is a discriminatory measure meant to scare off immigrants from completing the all-important decennial census form, undermine an accurate count, and thus improve Republican political fortunes.
“This has serious implications for the representation of Santa Fe and New Mexico in a large number of issues including federal funding, congressional districting and a variety of other matters that affect us directly,” Webber said. “We continue to deal with, I think, serious matters of [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement] in our community that’s very upsetting to residents in Santa Fe.
“And this particular census approach the federal government is proposing to be taken,” the mayor added, “I think further exacerbates the problem.”
The resolution would call on city residents to “express their opinion” about the citizenship question during the U.S. Census Bureau’s public comment period, which ends Aug. 7.
More than a dozen state attorneys general and several cities and counties have filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the citizenship question.