Trump’s Ploy to Rig 2020 Census is Illegal 

Statement of Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn 

Any action by President Trump to add the citizenship question to the 2020 Census is an illegal, desperate, and ill-fated attempt to further undermine a fair and accurate national headcount. Judges in New York, California, and Maryland, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court, have already rejected the Trump administration’s lies about the need for the citizenship question.  

 

The real purpose of the citizenship question is to rig redistricting to be “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites” to the detriment of Latinos and other families of color, as the documents of GOP gerrymanderer Thomas Hofeller obtained in the Common Cause v. Lewis case show.  

 

Any reason for changing the 2020 Census that is motivated by racial animus – whether that is to disadvantage Latinos and advantage whites in redistricting; to scare off Latino, Asian American and other immigrant families from responding to the Census; or to target immigrants in ICE raids – is illegal. As Americans we must stand up and reject any effort to undermine our U.S. Constitution or laws that are designed to ensure every person is counted.  

 

It is shameful that on the same day the President planned executive action on the census, he is also hosting extremists and white supremacists in a “social media summit” at the White House and other administration officials confirmed plans for nationwide immigration raids this weekend. These racist and undemocratic actions are attempts to divide our country even further and flies in the face of our democratic principles of equal representation and civil rights.