The Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census: Trump's Metaphorical Border Wall

Are you a citizen of the United States? Many of us have encountered this question in various questionnaires and surveys, and those of us who are born or naturalized citizens often don’t think twice about answering “yes”. It may seem like an innocent question on the surface, but in our recent political context, the nine bold words in the following image have unleashed an enormous amount of controversy.

This box is what the Trump administration wants to newly include in the 2020 Decennial Census. The census is a survey sent out each decade to every household in the US. It’s main purpose is to enumerate (count) every person residing in the US so that the appropriate number of representatives in congress can be assigned to each state, and so that the congressional districts can be drawn up appropriately. The questions that will be asked in the 2020 census are currently confined to age, sex, race, hispanic origin, relationship, tenure (owner/renter), and now most likely citizenship.

To understand the controversy behind this question, one must put themselves in the shoes of a non-US citizen. President Trump made immigration a major focus of his campaign. During his administration, he has attempted to push through many anti-immigration policies such as the US-Mexico border wall, replacing Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the travel ban, and the refugee ban. This ideology that the current presidential administration supports has undoubtedly instilled fear in immigrants for their safety and security in this country. Imagine a non-citizen Hispanic immigrant watching a crowd of hundreds of Trump supporters angrily chanting, “Build the wall!” After witnessing something along those lines, I would expect them to be very reluctant to fill in that lowest checkbox.

https://www.eutimes.net/2019/04/us-customs-and-border-protection-exposes-trump-says-he-built-zero-miles-of-wall/

That reality brings us to the reason for the controversy behind the citizenship question. It is expected that immigrants and particularly Latino residents will be reluctant to respond to the citizenship question or the entire census at all. Many may think that the government would use the information against them or their relatives, even though it is illegal to share someone's census responses with law enforcement or immigration agencies. Census Bureau research has projected a 5.1 percent drop in responses from non-citizen households, estimating an undercount of 6.5 million people if the citizenship question is added in 2020. This undercount would violate the constitution by failing to accurately enumerate the US population. It would cause areas with larger Latino and other immigrant populations to be underrepresented in congress, elections, and the allocation of an estimated $880 billion a year in federal funding.

These areas include the states of California, Florida, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, and New York, which are each at risk of losing a seat in the House of Representatives, and therefore an electoral vote. This triggered multiple lawsuits to be filed, including one by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and one in New York City. District Judge Jesse Furman’s ruling of the lawsuit in New York is currently being reviewed by the Supreme Court. Based on the oral arguments during Tuesday’s session, it appears that the justices are split along ideological lines and will vote 5-4 in favor of allowing the citizenship question.

The Trump administration claims that the addition of the citizenship question is needed for “more effective enforcement” of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in voting. Many find this hard to believe, considering Republican administrations have a history of pushing legislation through that discourages racial minorities from voting. In addition, the conservative Supreme Court justices that agreed with this claim actually helped weaken the Voting Rights Act in the 2013 ruling of Shelby County v. Holder. The enormous levels of irony in this situation point to the reality that the citizenship question is simply a form of discriminatory policy that is designed to underrepresent immigrants, Latinos, and the people that the Voting Rights Act was enacted to protect. In other words, it’s Trump’s metaphorical border wall that perpetuates racial inequality in our society.

Bibliography

Amadeo, Kimberly. "How Do Trump's Immigration Plans Affect You?" The Balance. Accessed April 24, 2019. https://www.thebalance.com/donald-trump-immigration-impact-on-economy-4151107.

Berman, Ari, Dan Friedman, Abigail Weinberg, Ari Berman, Tonya Riley, Jane C. Hu, Julia Lurie, Oliver Milman, Ari Berman, Rebecca Leber, and Ford. "When It Helps Trump, the Supreme Court Suddenly Cares a Lot about the Voting Rights Act." Mother Jones. April 23, 2019. Accessed April 24, 2019. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/04/in-census-case-supreme-court-suddenly-cares-a-lot-about-voting-rights-act/.

Cohn, D’Vera, and D’Vera Cohn. "The Citizenship Question Planned for 2020 Census: What to Know." Pew Research Center. March 30, 2018. Accessed April 24, 2019. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/30/what-to-know-about-the-citizenship-question-the-census-bureau-is-planning-to-ask-in-2020/.

Milbank, Dana. "Now Playing at the Supreme Court: How to Preserve White Power in Four Easy Steps." The Washington Post. April 23, 2019. Accessed April 24, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-census-case-presents-how-to-preserve-white-hegemony-in-four-easy-steps/2019/04/23/ef2b6712-660b-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html?utm_term=.346d02dc3788.

United States. U.S. Department of Commerce. Economics and Statistics Administration. Questions Planned for the 2020 Census and American Community Survey: Federal Legislative and Program Uses.

Wang, Hansi Lo, and Nina Totenberg. "A Decade Of Implications At Stake, Supreme Court Hears Census Citizenship Question." NPR. April 23, 2019. Accessed April 24, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/04/23/705210786/a-decade-of-implications-at-stake-supreme-court-hears-census-citizenship-question.