President Trump to Hold Conference About Census Citizenship Question
On the morning of July 11, 2019, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter that he would hold a conference on the citizenship and census question.
Despite the Supreme Court’s decision on not including the question of citizenship status on the 2020 census, The Washington Post is anticipating that President Trump will enact executive action to get the question on the census.
According to Kriston Capps, a writer for CityLab, 76% of Americans say that adding the citizenship question to the census is going to somewhat affect the numbers. Others believe that the purpose of the question is to deport illegal immigrants, despite the census being confidential. The United States Census Bureau said it is against the law to disclose personal information given on the census, even to other federal agencies, such as the FBI. Even with the protection of information given on the census, it seems like non-citizens might not participate in the census if this question is included. But what is the census for?
The census is conducted every 10 years to count the population. The data that is collected in the census determines how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives, and helps determine how to distribute funds to different communities. But if people don’t take the census, the government won’t be able to accurately determine how many seats each state should have for representation in the House of Representatives, or how much funding each state needs for the amount of residents they have.
This issue would affect quite a few states, especially the ones with the highest number of undocumented immigrants. Pew Research showed that the states with the highest number of undocumented immigrants are California, Georgia, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, and New Jersey. California and Texas alone have an estimated 3.8 million undocumented immigrants, over 35% of the nation’s total.
The Washington Post said the president’s action would not go unchallenged, especially after the Supreme Court’s ruling on not having enough justification to put a citizenship question on the census. The conference will take place this evening at 5 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at the Rose Garden, leaving many on the edge of their seats to see what the president’s decision will be.
