16 APRIL 5, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Queens offi cials slam census citizenship question
BY RYAN KELLEY
RKELLEY@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
TWITTER @R_KELLEY6
Elected offi cials who represent
Queens are voicing their
opinions about a controversial
decision by the U.S. Department of
Commerce to include a question about
citizenship on the upcoming 2020
census.
On March 26, the Commerce Department
announced the decision
in a statement that said the change
came in response to a request by the
Department of Justice (DOJ) to add the
citizenship question to help enforce
the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Respondents
to the 2020 survey will now have
to reveal whether or not they are U.S.
citizens, a move that the DOJ argues
will benefit section 2 of the VRA,
which protects minority voting rights.
In a memorandum explaining his
decision, Commerce Secretary Wilbur
Ross said that the department
could not defi nitively determine how
the citizenship question might aff ect
response rates, but the value of more
accurate data outweighs any negative
impact.
“The citizenship data provided to
DOJ will be more accurate with the
question than without it, which is of
greater importance than any adverse
eff ect that may result from people
violating their legal duty to respond,”
Ross wrote. “To minimize any impact
on decennial census response rates,
I am directing the Census Bureau to
place the citizenship question last on
the decennial census form.”
Critics of the decision were quick
to point out this week that amid an
immigration debate that is more
widespread than ever, asking census
respondents to state their citizenship
status would almost certainly cause
immigrant communities to opt out. In
fact, Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman
announced in a statement
on March 27 that he will be leading a
multi-state lawsuit to block the Commerce
Department’s move, which he
said would “create an environment
of fear and distrust in immigrant
communities.“
Several representatives of Queens
shared that opinion. Congresswoman
Grace Meng was present for an Appropriations
Subcommittee meeting on
March 20 in which Ross discussed the
citizenship question. Meng, who previously
sent a letter to Ross in January
urging him to reject the DOJ’s proposal,
pressed Ross during the hearing because
he had not made the decision yet.
When Ross chose to move forward
with the proposal six days later, Meng
released a statement that said the
decision was “deeply troubling and
reckless.”
Photo courtesy of Congresswoman Grace Meng’s offi ce
“Asking respondents if they are
citizens will likely decrease response
rates in immigrant communities, and
as a result produce an inaccurate and
incomplete count that will impact the
distribution of federal resources, and
the number of Congressional districts
that each state receives,” Meng said.
In his memorandum, Ross explained
that his research and discussions with
stakeholders and former Census Bureau
offi cials showed there is no empirical
data that could prove a citizenship
question would aff ect response rates.
A question about citizenship has not
been regularly included on the census
since 1950, though it has been included
intermittently since then, and smaller
surveys have regularly asked about
citizenship.
Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez,
who has been outspoken about her
disagreements with the Trump administration
on immigration issues,
took an even more pointed stance in
the census question debate when she
spoke at a rally on March 28.
“They are trying to say that when it
comes to distributing $700 billion in
health, food security, transportation
and education funding – that we will
discount our immigrant neighbors,”
Velazquez said. “That is immoral! It
is unacceptable! And it cannot stand.
Make no mistake, this is a calculated
effort to under count immigrants
and meddle with and infl uence our
Census.”
At the state level, Senator Joseph
Addabbo also released a statement
saying that he believes “it is a mistake”
to include a citizenship question on
the census. New York has one of the
highest immigrant populations in the
country, and Addabbo said that “If
these numbers are inaccurate, many
states and local communities may
not receive much-needed funding or
services that all the residents need and
deserve.”
Even down to the City Council —
which oversees part of the metro area
estimated to have the largest illegal
immigrant population based on a Pew
Research Center study — Councilman
Robert Holden agreed, though he can
see both sides of the coin.
“This is a double-edged sword,”
Holden, a member of the Council’s
immigration committee, said in a statement
to the Ridgewood Times. “I think
the question would be useful to have,
but the point of the census is to obtain
as much demographic information as
possible, and I don’t know that people
will answer that question honestly. I
think it might even discourage non-citizens
from fi lling out the census at all
for fear of being targeted, which would
skew population information needed
to make eff ective policy or govern on
a federal level.”
Congresswoman Grace Meng at an Appropriations Committee meeting on March 20.
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