Greenlining Institute Relieved as Supreme Court Temporarily Stops Census Citizenship Question
Media Contact
Danielle Bell
SENIOR PROGRAM MANAGER FOR MEDIA RELATIONS
media@greenlining.org danielle.bell@greenlining.orgBruce Mirken brucem@greenlining.org
Ruling Means Issue Will Likely Come back
Contact: Bruce Mirken, Greenlining Institute Media Relations Director, 510-926-4022; 415-846-7758 (cell)
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA – The Greenlining Institute expressed relief over today’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that at least temporarily delayed the Trump administration from adding a question about citizenship status to the 2020 Census. Experts overwhelmingly believe that such a question – which has not been asked since 1950 – would reduce response rates among immigrants. Greenlining Institute Interim President Preeti Vissa Kristipati made the following statement:
“The Trump administration sought to use the Census as a partisan tool. A citizenship question would hurt every state and every community where immigrants live, because when immigrant communities are underrepresented and underfunded, all communities suffer. It would lead to an undercount of immigrants, reducing congressional representation for communities with large numbers of immigrant residents and impacting funding for well over 100 federal programs, which base funding levels in part on Census data. Here in California, where over one quarter of our population is foreign-born, we would see major and lasting damage.
“But today’s Supreme Court ruling doesn’t finally settle the issue. And even if the citizenship question is kept off the 2020 Census, at best this is just one step in what will be a long battle – both to stop voter suppression and to end the Trump administration’s relentless war against science and accurate data.”
