Source: The Hill
Today, Trump issued an executive order that blocks undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census. This is an attempt to exclude immigrants from being counted when apportioning congressional representation. Last summer, Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census in order to intimidate immigrant families into not answering the census. However, the Supreme Court blocked this attempt.
Now, the government argues that the president has “final say over transmitting the final census report to Congress and that the Constitution does not explicitly define which persons must be included in determining appointment.”
However, “the Constitution requires that everyone in the U.S. be counted in the census. President Trump can’t pick and choose.” – Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project. The administration is taking away political power from millions of people, all while continuously keeping them from pursuing legal pathways to citizenship and lawful status.