The Trump administration says its request to add a question on citizenship status to the 2020 census is under legal review. Data from the once-a-decade census has major implications for shaping the political landscape. The population count is used to determine how congressional seats are distributed across the country and where hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent. Critics say that including a citizenship question on the census will deter undocumented residents from participating in the questionnaire out of fear that the government could use the information against them. Trump’s request to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census would “sabotage the entire census,” says Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, and “massively depress responses among immigrant groups.”
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, on Friday, the Trump administration said its request to add a question on citizenship status to the 2020 census is under legal review. The Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, now faces a March 31st deadline to evaluate the legal basis for the controversial question’s inclusion in the upcoming census.
Data from the once-a-decade census has major implications for shaping the political landscape. The population count is used to determine how congressional seats are distributed across the country and where hundreds of billions of federal dollars are spent.
AMY GOODMAN: Critics warn that including a citizenship question on the census will deter undocumented residents from participating in the questionnaire out of fear the government could use the information against them.
For more, we’re joined by Ari Berman, senior writer at Mother Jones, reporting fellow at The Nation Institute, author of Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America. His new for piece for Rolling Stone, “How the GOP Rigs Elections.”
Ari Berman, welcome back…