This Tuesday Aug 7 is the deadline for public comment on an insidious proposal to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. While that may seem innocuous, one should appreciate how fraught the current situation is for non-citizens in America today, and how unlikely they would be to respond to a government questionnaire asking about citizenship. Why is it important to count non-citizens? Our US Constitution requires a census every ten years to enumerate all residents for the purpose of apportioning representation. Note that this count is specifically of residents and not just citizens, and the census has counted non-citizens since the first census in 1790. If the non-citizen population of California (and other states with a higher share of immigrants) is undercounted, California could be apportioned fewer representatives in Congress and fewer electoral votes. At a time when immigration policy is being hotly debated, it is crucial for the states who actually have the most at stake to have the appropriately apportioned voice in the debate.
Anybody is invited to comment on the proposed government action. Follow this link: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=USBC-2018-0005 and look for the “Comment Now” button. Your comment can be as brief or lengthy as you like, and feel free to add any personal perspective or examples on how this could affect you. Here was my comment:
I strongly urge the Commerce Department to remove the citizenship question from the 2020 Census form. Including an untested, controversial question will undermine the quality and accuracy of the census. The Census Bureau's own Chief Scientist warned of lower response, much higher costs, and a less accurate census if the citizenship question is included (see note 1). Including a citizenship question puts the census at grave risk of a significant undercount, especially among hard-to-reach population groups that already are fearful of answering government surveys, according to the bureau's own research. An accurate enumeration of residents is the constitutional charge of the census, and a citizenship question must not be allowed to jeopardize that constitutional purpose for the census. Moreover, the apparent political motivation of the late addition of a citizenship question (see note 2, e.g.), and the apparent top-down direction to add this question despite contrary advice from agency experts, threatens to erode public faith in fundamentally non-partisan government functions such as the Bureau of the Census. At a time when public faith in government institutions is ebbing, we can ill afford such a mistake.
(1) Memo from John M. Abowd, "Technical Review of the Department of Justice Request to Add Citizenship Question to the 2020 Census", 19 Jan 2018.
(2) “Document Sheds Light On Decision To Add Census Citizenship Question”, NPR, 10 Jun 2018.
Anybody is invited to comment on the proposed government action. Follow this link: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=USBC-2018-0005 and look for the “Comment Now” button. Your comment can be as brief or lengthy as you like, and feel free to add any personal perspective or examples on how this could affect you. Here was my comment:
I strongly urge the Commerce Department to remove the citizenship question from the 2020 Census form. Including an untested, controversial question will undermine the quality and accuracy of the census. The Census Bureau's own Chief Scientist warned of lower response, much higher costs, and a less accurate census if the citizenship question is included (see note 1). Including a citizenship question puts the census at grave risk of a significant undercount, especially among hard-to-reach population groups that already are fearful of answering government surveys, according to the bureau's own research. An accurate enumeration of residents is the constitutional charge of the census, and a citizenship question must not be allowed to jeopardize that constitutional purpose for the census. Moreover, the apparent political motivation of the late addition of a citizenship question (see note 2, e.g.), and the apparent top-down direction to add this question despite contrary advice from agency experts, threatens to erode public faith in fundamentally non-partisan government functions such as the Bureau of the Census. At a time when public faith in government institutions is ebbing, we can ill afford such a mistake.
(1) Memo from John M. Abowd, "Technical Review of the Department of Justice Request to Add Citizenship Question to the 2020 Census", 19 Jan 2018.
(2) “Document Sheds Light On Decision To Add Census Citizenship Question”, NPR, 10 Jun 2018.
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