-Source-The Washington Times-
Liberal groups have come out in force against a proposed citizenship question on the 2020 Census, as the period for public comment on the controversial addition draws to a close Tuesday night.
The National Urban League called the citizenship question “untested, unjust, and unconstitutional” while the American Civil Liberties Union called it “a deliberate attempt by President Trump to once again attack immigrants.”
Groups predicted immigrants and minorities would be discouraged from participating in the decennial survey, leading to undercounts on data that’s used to parcel out seats in Congress, and hundreds of billions of dollars federal assistance.
“There is one constitutional purpose for the decennial census: to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives among the 50 states,” the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights wrote to the Bureau in comments submitted Aug. 1. “To realize the Constitution’s ‘principle of representational equality,’ the overarching goal of the decennial census must be an accurate count of all persons residing in the country. Any element of the census design and plan that might undermine or detract from the Census Bureau’s ability to achieve that goal simply cannot stand.” Read more