Donald Trump's administration apparently hasn't done enough to ravage the lives of undocumented immigrants—now his Justice Department wants to add a question to the Census that would be a step toward erasing their existence altogether, even as many continue to live, work, and pay taxes here. ProPublica's Justin Elliott writes:
The Justice Department is pushing for a question on citizenship to be added to the 2020 census, a move that observers say could depress participation by immigrants who fear that the government could use the information against them. That, in turn, could have potentially large ripple effects for everything the once-a-decade census determines — from how congressional seats are distributed around the country to where hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent.
The DOJ made the request in a previously unreported letter, dated Dec. 12 and obtained by ProPublica, from DOJ official Arthur Gary to the top official at the Census Bureau, which is part of the Commerce Department. The letter argues that the DOJ needs better citizenship data to better enforce the Voting Rights Act “and its important protections against racial discrimination in voting.” [...]
Observers said they feared adding a citizenship question would not only lower response rates, but also make the census more expensive and throw a wrench into the system with just two years to go before the 2020 count. Questions are usually carefully field-tested, a process that can take years.
Neither the White House nor the Justice Department was keen to comment on the proposal. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is charged with authority over which questions get asked, but he must submit them to Congress for final approval by April 2018, two years before the census is conducted.
But more than anything, the move appears to be a ploy to simultaneously intimidate immigrants and enhance GOP prospects at the ballot box.
Politico reported last month that the administration may appoint to a top job at the [census] bureau a Republican redistricting expert who wrote a book called “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America.” The Census Bureau’s population count determines how the 435 U.S. House seats are distributed. [...]
The Justice Department letter argues that including a citizenship question on the once-a-decade census would allow the agency to better enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars the dilution of voting power of a minority group through redistricting.
DOJ is suddenly concerned about VRA enforcement even though the census hasn't included citizenship questions since 1950. In fact, the yearly American Community Survey does include citizenship questions that have been used to inform questions around the VRA's Section 2.
“You could always have better data but it seems like a strange concern because no one in the communities who are most affected have been raising this concern,” said Michael Li, senior counsel at the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program.
In other words, the Justice Department is claiming to be addressing a need that hasn't actually been articulated. How very proactive.
In the meantime, suppressing participation in the census raises serious public health concerns, among other things. A government can’t properly address the needs of people living in the country if it doesn’t actually know who’s living here. The move would likely also result in less government funding being allocated for areas with a high concentration of immigrants, assuming fewer people participate due to the citizenship inquiry.