Missing Americans in the once-a-decade count can lead to cuts in local budgets and hamper important services Editor?s Note: Shortly after this article was published, reports citing a Department of Justice email confirmed that the Trump administration has decided to drop the citizenship question from the 2020 Census.
The recent discussion on adding a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. census is often framed in terms of political representation?population counts in the census determine how many Congressional seats a state gets. Efforts by the Trump Administration to add a question to the decennial count about a person?s immigration status?the subject of a recent Supreme Court decision?have raised worries among census experts and demographers that the query would lead to a significant undercount of the population in the United States, because immigrant self-response is predicted to decline for fear of being targeted by immigration status. While the apportionment of political power through Congressional seat counts is foundational to democracy, it?s not the only issue at stake with the census. The country?s once-a-decade count is both a survey and a massive data collection enterprise, the key method the federal government uses to properly apportion money for social programs, not mention the basis for research by an untold number of third parties like nonprofits and universities.
How does that impact local government and the community programs that cities and municip...