Citizenship question to be put back on the 2020 Census for first time in 70 years

The Commerce Department is reinstating a citizenship question to the 2020 Census for the first time in decades, a move that some argue will lead to an undercount of minorities living in the United States.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts the total number of people in the country — not the total number of citizens — every 10 years. Though it usually doesn't ask about a person's citizenship status, the Justice Department asked the agency late last year to include the question. It is the first time the government has done that in 70 years.

The Census count is used to redraw congressional districts, so it can affect the makeup of Congress, and to determine where federal, state and local funds will be used to build new schools, roads, health care facilities, child-care centers and senior centers. It also forms the basis of countless government and academic studies that drive public policy decisions and legislation from Washington, D.C., to statehouses and city halls.

In a statement released Monday night, the Commerce Department said the question was being added to help enforce the Voting Rights Act. The department pointed out that previous Census surveys before 1950 consistently asked citizenship questions.

Critics were quick to blast the department's justification, however, saying the move was designed to undercount immigrants and minorities.

Former attorney general Eric Holder, now with the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said Tuesday morning that he would sue the administration to block the question from the Census. He said asking about citizenship has nothing to do with voting rights. 

"Make no mistake – this decision is motivated purely by politics," Holder said. "In deciding to add this question without even testing its effects, the Administration is departing from decades of census policy and ignoring the warnings of census experts."

And in California, home to more than 10 million immigrants, the state attorney general filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning challenging the new Census question. 

"California simply has too much to lose for us to allow his Administration to botch this obligation!" said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who has led successful lawsuits against the Trump administration on other immigration-related disputes. 

In recent weeks, congressional lawmakers, mayors and civil rights activists have ramped up efforts to urge federal officials to reject the question and have called on Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to turn down the request.

“This is not the time to parachute in and try to throw something in at the last minute, particularly something so incendiary that is likely to impact people’s willingness to participate," said Terry Ao Minnis, director of Census and Voting Programs at Asian Americans Advancing Justice.

Minnis and other opponents say adding the question is unnecessary and will lead to an inaccurate count because some people may be afraid to fill out the form.

On March 15, a group of 10 U.S. senators sent a letter to John Gore, the acting assistant attorney general, asking him about his involvement in originating the request for the Census Bureau to add the citizenship question and what role the White House and other entities had played.

The senators wrote: "We are deeply troubled not just by the request to add a citizenship question, but by the impact that such a question would have on the accuracy on the 2020 Census."

They wrote they are concerned that such a question would "depress participation among immigrants and those who live in mixed-status households."

Late Monday, Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, issued a statement, saying: "This untimely, unnecessary, and untested citizenship question will disrupt planning at a critical point, undermine years of painstaking preparation, and increase costs significantly, putting a successful, accurate count at risk.

"The question is unnecessarily intrusive and will raise concerns in all households – native- and foreign-born, citizen and non-citizen – about the confidentiality of information provided to the government and how government authorities may use that information," the statement added.

Some supporters of adding the question counter that it’s a modest change and say the opposition is exaggerated.

“The Trump administration is simply trying to get accurate information on the American population,’’ Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, wrote in an op-ed in USA TODAY last month. “It’s not new; previous Censuses have asked this question. Hostility to this limited reform is overblown, though unfortunately to be expected."

The agency has until March 31 to submit Census questions to Congress.

More: Groups raise concerns about move to ask about citizenship on the Census

More: Early data shows 2020 census could continue power shift in House toward South and West

More: St. George, Utah, is nation’s fastest-growing metro area, Census says

Contributing: Alan Gomez, Deborah Barfield Berry and Jessica Estepa. Follow Carolyn McAtee Cerbin on Twitter: @carolyncerbin