The American Human Rights Council (AHRC-USA) joins the civil rights and human rights communities across the nation in welcoming the federal court’s ruling striking out the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question on the 2020 Census form.
Jesse M. Furman of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York wrote that the addition of the citizenship question is “arbitrary and capricious” and the process used to add it violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
The Constitution requires a Census of the people of the people of the US to be held every ten years. The Census is a very important undertaking with the most important aspect of it being a high response rate. The response rate is related to trust in government. The federal government has spent a lot of resources into building trust, especially in minority communities. The citizenship question is counterproductive and will add to the fear and lack of trust of the federal government among immigrant communities. AHRC is glad that the judge struck out the question.
“It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the Census and the importance of a high response rate,” said Dr. Saleh Muslah, AHRC Board President.
“The Census should not be used for partisan reasons,” said Imad Hamad, AHRC Executive Director. “Adding questions that would depress response rate defeats the purpose of having a Census,” added Hamad.
For more on the case, see: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/2019/01/15/ec70d5a8-18da-11e9-8813-cb9dec761e73_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.08eefaeed24c
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