Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Federal Judge Orders Removal of Citizenship Question for 2020 Census by Gavin S.

https://www.npr.org/2019/01/15/671283852/judge-orders-trump-administration-to-remove-2020-census-citizenship-question

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-census-decision/judge-rejects-citizenship-question-for-2020-u-s-census-idUSKCN1P91SF

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On Tuesday a New York federal judge ruled against the decision to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ordered the Trump administration to cease its plans in adding the controversial question to the upcoming census. In a 277-page opinion (available in the first link), Furman cited that the question would be hurtful to immigrants in the United States by discouraging them from partaking in the count. Furman then criticized Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for his decision to add the question to the census, stating that the decision was “unlawful” due to violations of the Administrative Procedure Act.

The census questions asks, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” A question of such nature has not been asked on a census since 1950. Experts from the Census Bureau cited that adding the question to the upcoming census would lead to an undercount and would hurt data quality. Despite this, the question is still up for debate. The Supreme Court has since agreed to weigh in on the legality of the evidence for the census citizenship question. Multiple hearings have been scheduled for the case, but it is unknown when a final decision will be reached.

Do you believe that the citizenship question belongs on the census? Do you think the question would be beneficial or detrimental to the results of the census? What could be a better alternative in order to receive more accurate census results?

4 comments:

  1. I do not think a citizenship question belongs on the census, though I understand the potential uses for gathering such data; other than making immigration control a lot easier, it could also simply provide insightful information about how many illegals are actually in our country. This statistic could be used in a variety of ways. However, it would undoubtedly hurt illegal immigrants as the government could (and likely would) use this information against them. Naturally, this potential harm would lead many to answering in the way that would most benefit them: falsely. Therefore, to get the most honest results, I think that question should be kept off of the census.

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  2. I believe a citizenship question will add more data to examine to the results of the census. It could potentially provide an estimate of how many people in the United States are not citizens. The information wouldn't be held against them because most city and state governments are already not enforcing immigration laws in America. I understand that anyone could lie on it, which is why I think it is given too much credit, but the addition of a citizenship question would be beneficial to the census.

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  3. The citizenship question is a good idea in theory, but in reality it probably won't work as it was designed to. Like Grace and Daniel both said, anyone could lie about their citizenship. If someone is here illegally, they are not going to rat themselves out.

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  4. I do not believe the citizenship question belongs on the test. The census is used to determine how many people are living in our country, not whether or not the people are a citizen or not. I feel like the question will be used as a trap to deport a lot of illegal citizens. Also, if someone was here illegally, it isn't likely that they would admit it.

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