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Trump backs down on including citizenship question in 2020 census
WASHINGTON, July 12, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – US President Donald Trump backed down
Thursday from a push to force a controversial question on citizenship onto
the 2020 census following a backlash by civil rights campaigners.
Critics said the administration wanted to add the question to suppress
participation by immigrant communities in the once-a-decade survey that helps
officials determine where to allocate federal resources.
“We are pursuing a new option to ensure a complete and timely count of the
non-citizen population,” the president told a news conference at the White
House.
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court seemingly ended a legal and political
battle over the issue. It concluded that the Trump administration’s stated
reasons for including the question were “contrived,” and blocked the move.
Stung by the conservative-majority high court’s 5-4 decision, Trump raised
the possibility of forcing the issue with an executive order, or even
postponing the census.
The stakes are immense: the census helps determine the disbursement of $675
billion in federal subsidies and the number of seats in the US House of
Representatives allocated to each state.
A question on citizenship, which was dropped more than 60 years ago, could
stop between 1.6 and 6.5 million immigrants from participating or answering
truthfully, according to census officials.
Immigrants living in the country illegally would especially be reticent,
out of fear that they would be identified for deportation.
As he announced the U-turn, Trump said he would sign an executive order
requiring federal agencies to provide the Commerce Department with
immigration information from their existing databases.
“It is essential that we have a clear breakdown of the number of citizens
and non-citizens that make up the US population. Imperative,” he said.
Rights groups and Democrats hailed Trump’s climb-down.
“President @realDonaldTrump’s census defeat is a significant victory for
democracy and fair representation. Every person must be counted, and no one
should be intimidated by the president and his capricious behavior,” Senate
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Twitter.
“His retreat on adding the misguided citizen question to the census was
long overdue.”
The American Civil Liberties Union added that it will continue to monitor
the Trump administration’s efforts to count immigrants.
“When the details of Trump’s new plan to compile citizenship data outside
of the census come out — and his plans for using that data — we will
scrutinize them closely and assess their legality.”
BSS/AFP/GMR/0854 hrs