Some people are pretty upset that a question will ask if people are citizens
(The Hill) Uncertainly is swirling over whether the Census Bureau will be able to get an accurate population count for the 2020 census, as the agency considers a Department of Justice (DOJ) request to add a controversial question about citizenship status to the census questionnaire.
The stakes are enormously high.
Census data is used to redraw House districts, and the number of House seats each state receives also plays a part in determining each state’s number of electoral votes.
Experts say a citizenship question could seriously skew the numbers if people are too frightened to respond.
It’s simple: if you aren’t here legally, you should not be counted. Heck, if you are here legally as someone on a visa or some sort of temporary status, you shouldn’t be counted. The only ones who should be counted are citizens and permanent legal residents.
But given Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, experts say the question would likely make Latinos, who are already hesitant to answer the questionnaire, even less likely to respond.
“We know that 7 percent of the population are people who are foreign born, but not citizens, which is about 22 million undocumented and documented people,†said William Frey, a senior fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.
And those 22 million should not count. Their presence should have nothing to do with the census, which apportions House seats and federal money, among others. However
Vincent Barabba, who served as director of the Census Bureau during the Nixon and Carter administrations, said citizenship isn’t part of the constitutionally mandated census.
“The Constitution says it will be a census of the inhabitants of the states,†he said. “It doesn’t say it’ll be a census of citizens.â€
Amendment 14 over-rode part of Article 1, Section 2, which had originally stated
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.
That was partly changed to
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed.
It says to count them, however, it doesn’t say they have to be used to determine House apportionment. In fact, Article 1, Section 2 gives Congress the power to direct by law. The law can determine who are Persons. Should non-citizens determine apportionment? No.
