Colorado attorney general backs citizenship question

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, a Republican, has joined her GOP counterparts from two other states in supporting the Trump administration’s controversial plans to reinstate a question about citizenship on the 2020 census.

“The goal of the census is to produce as accurate a picture as possible of the makeup of our vast and diverse country so that all people that live within our borders can be appropriately represented,” Coffman said in a written statement Monday. “Colorado’s next redistricting and reapportionment will be based on its 2020 census data. We need the most complete information possible to assure fair political representation of the entire state.”

She added: “In fact, it is so important to be able to obtain this information that federal law provides strong privacy protections for the information that is collected, which should help overcome any reluctance to participate.”

Coffman is also a Republican candidate for governor of Colorado, and her stance on the census citizenship question is just the latest move that aligns her with conservatives pushing back against sanctuary cities — places that are seen as having policies beneficial to or protecting people living in the U.S. illegally.

Coffman sent out a news release alongside GOP attorneys general Mike Hunter of Oklahoma and Jeff Landry of Louisiana in backing the U.S. Department of Commerce’s intentions to have a citizenship question on the next census.

The group says it anticipates “taking action to support the … decision in litigation when the proper opportunity arises.”

A group of state Democratic attorneys general is challenging the citizenship question in court.

Opponents of the proposal, which would mark the question’s inclusion in the census for the first time in decades, say it could create fear among immigrant populations and discourage them from participating in the census, among other concerns, leading to an undercount.