McKenna: Does including citizenship question hurt census?
Jan 19, 2019, 7:53 AM
The 2020 U.S. Census will add a question about citizenship status, a move that brought swift condemnation from Democrats who said it would intimidate immigrants and discourage them from participating. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
The 2020 census is coming up, and that’s been the source of some controversy because the Trump administration wants to include a question about whether you are a citizen.
A judge ruled recently that the question cannot be asked, and the reason he gave was that the Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, came close to lying about why they wanted to include that question.
Why is the question generating so much opposition?
“Asking about citizenship might discourage non-citizens from participating in the census,” former state Attorney General Rob McKenna told Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross. “They might dodge it and not fill out the form, which means there would be an undercount of people who are not citizens. It would particularly effect states with large numbers of immigrants.”
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Opponents of the potential question argue that the question is being put in to undercount immigrants, and that doing so would discourage participation. The administration responded by saying that they want the data in order to help enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and to ensure minority access to the polls.
“I’m not exactly sure how that works, since non-citizens don’t vote, but if they’re really getting at minority access to the polls, that is a legitimate objective.” McKenna said. “On the other hand, we haven’t had this question on the census since 1950, and successive administrations — including Republican administrations, like George H.W. Bush — actually opposed including the citizenship question.”
Congressional districts are not drawn on the number of voters, but the number of people, both citizens and non-citizens. Opponents argue the question is being added for partisanship purposes, to exclude non-citizens from the population count for congressional apportionment. Should an undercount occur, it would likely impact states that lean democratic.
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“Attorney General Becerra in California has said flat out that this is aimed at ‘reducing the number of congressional seats that we get, aimed at reducing the amount of federal funding we get,’ because all of that is tied to population counts.”
Regardless, the census is not impacted by the shutdown, so it will likely go on, one way or another.
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Tune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 5am for Dave Ross on Seattle's Morning News.
