From Common Cause (http://www.commoncause.org):
We need a fair, accurate Census in 2020 — but the administration is attempting to rig it and leave many of our communities undercounted. Submit a comment now to fight back at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/submit-your-comment-no-citizenship-question-on-2020-census.
We need your help to stop the administration from adding an untested and unnecessary question on citizenship status to the 2020 Census.
Experts warn that this will cause countless Americans — whether they’re citizens or not — to refuse to fill out the Census survey. That means the Census data we use to draw legislative districts, make spending decisions, and more won’t accurately reflect our communities.
That’d play right into the Administration’s hands — skewing our government against communities with high non-citizen populations until 2030. Our Constitution requires the Census to count every person who lives here — and getting that count right is hugely important for all of our futures.
Your comment will be posted publicly in the federal register (along with your name, city, state, and ZIP) — and will help demonstrate the American people’s opposition to the citizenship question. That’ll help our efforts to reverse it — at the Census Bureau, in Congress, or in court.
Here’s why this matters so much: The Constitution requires the Census, which we use to determine congressional representation, to count everyone regardless of citizenship status. But this question will intimidate many households in immigrant communities and keep them from filling out the 2020 Census form.
That’s the unanimous conclusion of six previous Census Bureau directors who served presidents of both parties, in a letter they signed earlier this year opposing this move.[1] Considering the Trump administration’s racist and anti-immigrant politics, it’s easy to see how this needlessly intrusive question will raise concerns in all households about how government authorities might use their information.
But if we don’t get an accurate count from communities with high immigrant populations, it means they’ll have less representation in Congress and state houses. That means maneuvers like this to suppress people’s legitimate Census responses will further silence their voices in government.
If we let the Administration rig the 2020 Census with an unnecessary citizenship question, our representative democracy will be knocked out of balance until at least 2030. That’s why our action — and yours — is so critically important right now.
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