A three-judge panel in New York, including two judges appointed by Republican presidents, on Thursday blocked impeached president Donald Trump’s unconstitutional and discriminatory order seeking to erase undocumented immigrants from the 2020 census, calling the July demand "an unlawful exercise of the authority granted to the President." The New York Times reports that the judges concluded Trump’s demand “was so obviously illegal that a lawsuit challenging the order need not go to a trial.”
“The courts have ruled in our favor on every census matter in the last two years and continually rejected President Trump’s unlawful efforts to manipulate the census for political purposes,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James, who was among the leaders who took the administration to court. “We cannot allow the White House’s constant fearmongering and xenophobia to stop us from being counted.”
“The Constitution is abundantly clear,” James’ July lawsuit stated. “For purposes of apportioning members of the House of Representatives among the states, every person residing in the U.S. during the census, regardless of legal status, must be counted. But, this past Tuesday, July 21, 2020, President Trump declared, in a presidential memorandum, his intent to exclude undocumented immigrants from the apportionment base—the first time such action has been taken in our nation’s history.”
The administration’s motives were as clear as a sunny day: to keep white supremacy’s deadly grasp on the nation as tight as possible, while depriving communities everywhere of representation, funding, and other vital resources in the process. But even though this unconstitutional and discriminatory memo has for now been defeated in court, as many said it would be, advocates said harm may have already been done.
“We have spent countless hours and dollars encouraging our community members to complete Census 2020,” said Pastor Dieufort J. Fleurissaint of Haitian-Americans United, which was among the groups that sued. “With a stroke of a pen, the Trump administration has undermined all of our efforts in a racist attempt to prevent our communities from receiving the representation and resources they need and deserve.”
The administration has been fighting a steady war against a fair census count, confirming earlier this fall that it would be shutting down nationwide data collection—including critical door-knocking efforts—a month early, at the end of September. That plan has been blocked for now by a Florida court. “The temporary restraining order was requested by a coalition of cities, counties and civil rights groups who are seeking to force the Census Bureau to restore its previous plan for finishing the census at the end of October,” NBC News reports.
James used this latest court ruling to “urge everyone to fill out the census, if they have not already,” and said her office “will continue to take every legal action available to ensure all communities are counted, all communities are properly represented, and all communities get the federal funding they need and deserve.” If you haven’t yet done so, click here to complete the census today.
