Citizenship Count

From KCTV 5 News:
"Citizenship question will return to the 2020 census, Commerce Dept. says"

In a controversial move, the Commerce Department Monday said the question of citizenship will again be included in the 2020 Census. The move comes at the request of the Justice Department, first made in the early days of the administration, saying it was needed to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. President Donald Trump's reelection campaign endorsed the idea in an email to supporters last week. The email said, "The President wants the 2020 United States Census to ask people whether or not they are citizens. In another era, this would be COMMON SENSE... but 19 attorneys general said they will fight the President if he dares to ask people if they are citizens. The President wants to know if you're on his side." Census data is used to determine where federal funds are spent and how congressional districts are drawn, among other uses. The Census is intended to count the entire population, not just US citizens. The question raised concerns that a citizenship question would cause undocumented individuals not to complete the questionnaire and leave a large population uncounted, with potential consequences for the next decade and beyond. In a statement, the Commerce Department said, "The citizenship question will be the same as the one that is asked on the yearly American Community Survey (ACS). Citizenship questions have also been included in prior decennial censuses. Between 1820 and 1950, almost every decennial census asked a question on citizenship in some form. Today, surveys of sample populations, such as the Current Population Survey and the ACS, continue to ask a question on citizenship."  The importance of the census cannot be overstated. Data collected from the survey affect how congressional seats are apportioned and how federal funds are allocated to state and local governments. It affects the distribution of money for community necessities like services for senior citizens, roads and schools, and job training centers. That's what makes this potential move by the administration so troubling. Since the census began in 1790, its goal has been to count all people, not just citizens. The 14th Amendment states, "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." The founding fathers could have inserted the word "citizens" in this provision, as they did in other sections of the Constitution, but they did not. Clearly, their intent was that apportionment of representatives, which depends on census results, should be based on who is present in the country, period. As recently as 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that election districts could be drawn based on total population, instead of the number of people eligible to vote. So any ideas that the Trump DOJ might have about collecting citizenship data -- with an eye toward changing how congressional districts are drawn -- would potentially undermine the spirit of that ruling. According to the ProPublica report, "The law governing the census gives the commerce secretary, currently Wilbur Ross, the power to decide on questions. They must be submitted to Congress for review two years before the census, in this case by April 2018. A census spokesperson said the agency will also release the questions publicly at that time."   

^ I wonder how many people know that there are American citizens and American nationals and what the difference between the two is. I don't see the Citizenship question as that big of a deal because people can easily lie about it and if they are illegally in the United States then they are already criminals so telling a lie isn't that far of a stretch for them. ^

http://www.kctv5.com/story/37814213/this-question-will-return-to-the-2020-census-commerce-dept-says