Continuing to completely fail on novel coronavirus pandemic response and waving away the over 140,000 Americans so far who have died from COVID-19, the Trump administration on Tuesday announced an unconstitutional move seeking to block undocumented immigrants from being counted in the census. Already having lost in the highest court in the land after trying to unlawfully add a citizenship question to the census, advocates pledge to again fight to block the unconstitutional demand.
“The Constitution requires that everyone in the U.S. be counted in the census. President Trump can’t pick and choose,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said. “He tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court. His latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities will be found unconstitutional. We’ll see him in court, and win, again.”
Adrian Reyna, a director of strategy with United We Dream Action, called the unconstitutional grab a clear attempt to erase immigrants from census data and feed a racist base.
“Donald Trump knows that the only way he and his party can move their anti-immigrant, white supremacist agenda is by creating the conditions that suppress votes and representation among Black and brown people,” Reyna said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “Instead of focusing his administration’s efforts on the over 140,000 people who have died of COVID-19, and the millions who are out of work, Trump is doing what he always does: attack immigrants. Trump continues trying to intimidate and erase undocumented and immigrant communities.”
Not to mention trying to intimidate and erase undocumented communities that pay billions in taxes every year and have pumped billions in the Social Security Fund and Medicare—programs they’ll never be able to access unless they’re able to change their immigration status:
The impeached president is also a huge hypocrite on this issue (I know, breaking news!), having hired and exploited undocumented workers at his golf clubs and winery. Will those workers be affected by his unconstitutional demand? One of those former workers, a former housekeeper who was undocumented during the time she worked at Trump’s Bedminster golf club, chimed in on Twitter:
“This order isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on and will be struck down by the courts,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement received by Daily Kos. “Attempting to weaponize the Census for political gain is yet another racially driven attack by a president and administration that wrongly views immigrants as the enemy, when they are a vital part of our society.”
“Today’s memorandum will end up in the dustbin of history as yet another exemplar of Donald Trump’s disturbing embrace of white nationalism,” Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) said in another statement. “It will stand as another shameful monument to his attempts to sow division in our nation’s populace. It will earn recognition as another unmasking of Trump’s perverse and damaging ’leadership.’”
“MALDEF will be in court to stop this latest example of blatantly unconstitutional executive action by a failed presidency,” the organization continued.
