ACLU Sues Trump Over Census: "A Naked Act of Intentional Discrimination"
Source: Mother Jones
The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over its decision to add a controversial question about US citizenship to the 2020 census. The ACLU suit is the fifth one challenging the citizenship question, which is likely to depress the response rate among immigrants and reduce the political power of the cities and states where large numbers of them live.
"The addition of the citizenship question is a naked act of intentional discrimination directed at immigrant communities of color that is intended to punish their presence, avoid their recognition, stunt their growing political power, and deprive them and the communities in which they live of economic benefits," states the lawsuit, which was filed on behalf of immigrants' rights groups.
The ACLU contends that the new question violates the Census Bureau's constitutional mandate to count every person in America accurately, regardless of citizenship. The census determines how $675 billion in federal funding is allocated to states and localities, how many congressional seats and electoral votes states receive, and how voting districts are drawn. If many immigrants don't respond to the census because they fear that reporting themselves as noncitizens could cause them to be deported, that would shift economic and political power to whiter and more Republican areas.
The 2010 census failed to count 1.5 million people of color while overcounting white Americans. That discrepancy could get much worse under Trump, whose administration has targeted immigrant communities and denied critical resources to the Census Bureau.
Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/aclu-sues-trump-over-census-a-naked-act-of-intentional-discrimination/
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