By KAYLA DEMICCO
Opinion Editor
When the census first started in 1790, there wasn’t nearly as much information collected about each household compared to the 2010 census and the upcoming 2020 census.
From then to now, the questions on the census have seemed to get slightly more inclusive as time progressed. Progress was made when more races and nationalities were available to choose from, but things might change with an anti-reformist administration.
In a press release by the U.S. Department of Commerce on March 26, it was announced that a citizenship question would be added back to the 2020 Census, which was taken out for the 1950 Census. From 1950 on, the census only asked where a person was born, specifically what state or what foreign country.
In the press release, it is stated that the citizenship question was requested to be put back in by Secretary Wilbur Ross of the Department of Justice “to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.”
The press release states that the request was made back in December 2017 “to provide census block level citizenship voting age population data that is not currently available from government surveys”.
The Department of Justice says that this data would help protect minority voting rights and “permit more effective enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.”
This decision has been reviewed by the Census Bureau leadership, Members of Congress, and interested stakeholders and it was determined that this question is “necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data.”
The American Community Survey states that:
“Agencies and policymakers use our published statistics to set and evaluate immigration policies and laws, understand the experience of different immigrant groups, and enforce laws, policies, and regulations against discrimination based on national origin. These statistics also help tailor services to accommodate cultural differences.”
They assure that the survey answers are confidential and no can be identified based on the statistics that they produce.
Due to strict confidentiality requirements, “the Census Bureau cannot share respondents’ answers with anyone—not the IRS, not the FBI, not the CIA, and not with any other government agency” by law.
However, NPR reports that “New York State is leading a group of 18 states, 10 cities, four counties and the U.S. Conference of Mayors in a lawsuit against the Census Bureau and Commerce Department to try to remove [the] new citizenship question from the 2020 census questionnaire.”
In the lawsuit “State of New York et al v U.S. Department of Commerce”, the plaintiffs raise their concerns about “anti-immigration policies, actions, and targeting immigrant communities of President Trump and his Administration.”
The plaintiffs also pointed out that the request was put into effect too quickly.They state in the lawsuit:
“Decisions to change questions on the decennial census typically take several years to test, evaluate, and implement; but Defendants’ decisions here was compressed into a hasty and unprecedented period of less than four months.”
Many news sources are calling this new question “dangerous” and want people to know that it is a big deal. One of the main reasons that this question is considered dangerous is because of the immigrants and the immigrant-rights community.
SLATE adds that it’s possible that the question will cause people to not fill out the census form at all, which would affect the accuracy of the census.
In an exclusive interview with NPR, the acting U.S. Census Bureau Director, Ron Jarmin, says, “Controversy about the content of the census does complicate our messaging.”
NPR reported at of the end August, “Trump administration officials are facing depositions through the next few weeks. Attorneys for the plaintiffs are expected to focus on the Trump administration’s motivations for the question.”
