14.4% of America's population are legal immigrants according to “Pew Research Center”. That is 47 million people who work in American jobs, send their kids to American schools, and pay taxes to the American government. That is also 47 million people who are going to feel singled out on the 2020 census and concerned that the schools they send their children to won’t be funded and that they won’t be represented to the government that they pay taxes too. All because they are not a citizen. The concern for many about the citizenship question on the 2020 census is the fear of an undercount of the immigrant population. An undercount could cause there to be less representation and government funding in largely immigrant communities and the only reason provided to us about why they are adding the question is a weak argument about enforcing the Voting Rights Act.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has been defending his decision to add the citizenship question to the 2020 census by saying that it was done solely by the request of the Justice Department and the Trump Administration interest in enhancing the Voting Rights Act. Of course, many people are challenging Wilbur Rosse’s claims by citing calls, emails, and memos made in April 2017 from Ross and to Ross showing that he was considering the citizenship question long before the Justice Department made it a written request in December of 2017. Also, Committee Chairman Rep. Elijah Cummings pointed out a discussion in July 2017 that Ross had with President Donald Trump’s former Chief Strategist, Steve Bannon, and head of Donald Trump’s short-lived presidential commission on voter fraud, Kris Kobach, about the citizenship question. All of this information proves that unlike what Wilbur Ross said, they were thinking about adding the citizenship question to the census long before the Justice Department requested it. The claim that the question is being added to enhance the Voting Rights Act is also being brought into question because of the American Community Survey or ACS. The ACS regularly gathers information such as ancestry, education, language proficiency, and housing characteristics and is the premier source for America’s changing population, housing, and workforce according to the “United States Census Bureau”. This is important because the ACS has been monitoring and enforcing the Voting Rights Acts for several years and has been successful on all accounts. Which begs the question, why add the citizenship question to the census if we already have a successful method of enforcing the Voting Rights Act? Not to mention all the other downfalls to adding the citizenship question.

The census influences the allocation of $800 billion in federal government resources to states and families every year for things like health care, education, transportation, rural access to broadband, and other services. Census data also helps local officials, community leaders, and nonprofit organizations identify current and future needs for their community, In addition, the census guides private sector investment decisions on where to invest in new facilities, jobs, and marketing. So as you see, if there is an undercount on the immigrant population, as many suspects there will be. Then predominantly immigrant communities will be affected drastically. That means their schools and nonprofit organizations like food shelves will receive less government funding and there will be fewer job opportunities, and the sad reality is that largely immigrant communities are the ones that need the money the most says the “Center For Poverty Research”. Another reason why an undercount is a big deal is because of the House of Reps. Every state gets a certain number of representatives based on their population says the “Directory of Representatives”. That means if there is an undercount of the immigrant population, their state could possibly get fewer representatives then they need. Which is a big deal because representatives are supposed to represent the people in huge decisions like passing a law. I just got done naming several reasons why the citizenship question shouldn’t be on the census but what about a very basic one. It doesn’t work.

The last time there was a citizenship question on the census was in the 1950s and the Census Bureau decided to remove the question in 1960 because innovations in survey methods revealed an easier less burdensome way of counting America's immigrant population. Which is the ACS that I mentioned earlier. The Census Bureau also discovered that they got less accurate information with the question on the census according to Margo Anderson, who wrote a book on “The History of the Census”. Also in 1980, the Census Bureau got sued and the government's argument against it was “any effort to ascertain citizenship will inevitably jeopardize the overall accuracy of the population count”- an argument that the Census Bureau has upheld over the years. So the Census Bureau itself has said multiple times over the years that the citizenship question will affect the accuracy of the census. The Census Bureau even did tests as early as 2017 proving this fact even more. In test setting from February to September 2017, survey respondents provided ‘incomplete or inaccurate information and were visibly nervous about immigration and citizenship questions” says the Census Bureau. Even though census data is protected under the law from such disclosure, many people were concerned that their responses would be shared or disclosed. So at this point, the evidence is irrefutable, it has been proven time and time again that the citizenship question causes there to be inaccurate information on the census and inaccurate information on the census can affect millions.

I believe the citizenship question shouldn’t be added to the 2020 census. My reasons being the fact the main argument to add the citizenship question (strengthening the Voting Rights Act) has been proven unnecessary and a problem that does not need to be fixed and along with the fact that the Trump administration has very boldly lied about why and who wants the question added to the census. Also the cons of adding the question far outway any good that could come out of it and of course the basic fact that the question will directly affect the data of the census in a negative way. Overall I believe the citizenship question is just another way to discriminate against the immigrant population and there is no real logical reason to add it. If we add the citizenship question to the 2020 census 47 million hard-working American residents will be affected for the worst.