Fight for 2020 Census Offi cials hail SCOTUS
Census decision Jackson Heights applauds rebuff of citizenship question
BY BILL PARRY
Queens lawmakers
are applauding the U.S.
Supreme Court’s decision
announced on Thursday
that temporarily blocks the
Trump administration’s
attempt to put a citizenship
question in the 2020 census.
The ruling handed down
on June 27 comes nearly a
year after the U.S. Commerce
Department, which oversees
the census, overruled the
unanimous advice of Census
Bureau experts and approved
the controversial question,
“Is this person a citizen of the
United States?”
Congresswoman Carolyn
Maloney, the co-chair of the
House Census Caucus, had
warned that a citizenship
question would lead to
immigrant families to not
fill out the form leading to
an undercount which would
have drastic effects in the
five boroughs.
“The importance of
counting every person
cannot be overstated, which
is why I am working with
my colleagues and with
community groups on
the ground in New York
to make sure we fulfill
our Constitutional duty,”
Maloney said. “New York
alone receives $73 billion per
year based on census data
for critical and lifesaving
programs. Businesses,
large and small, rely on
census data in deciding how
to effectively grow their
businesses and with it, the
American economy and
our communities. And of
course, census data is used
to assign seats in the House
of Representatives, apportion
votes in the Electoral College,
and draw legislative districts
at every level of government.
It is literally the backbone of
our democracy. We cannot
afford to get it wrong and
we will not let this partisan
sabotage win.”
The decision comes two
days after Maloney took to
the House floor to release
documents directly linking
Commerce Secretary Wilbur
Ross’s decision to add the
citizenship question to
Thomas Hofeller, known to
the GOP as the Michaelangelo
of gerrymandering.
“These documents prove
that adding the citizenship
question was never about
voting rights, in fact, it was
about the opposite,” Maloney
said. “It was to disenfranchise
voters all across the country
and rig the electoral
college and distribution of
congressional districts in the
GOP’s favor.”
Following the decision
Thursday, Maloney said.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling
confirmed what we have been
saying all along, the Trump
administration’s claim that
they needed the citizenship
question to better enforce the
Voting Rights Act was a lie.”
Last April, Queens
Borough President Melinda
Katz signed an amicus
brief to the Supreme Court,
along with nearly 200 other
elected officials from across
the country, opposing the
inclusion of the citizenship
question.
Read more at QNS.com.
Reach reporter Bill
Parry by email at bparry@
schnepsmedia.com or by
phone at (718) 260–4538.
Jagpreet Singh of Chayya CDC addresses a crowd celebrating the Supreme Court’s census decision in
Jackson Heights. Photo by Max Parrott/QNS
BY MAX PARROTT
The sound of the Dohl, a
double-headed Bangladeshi
drum, rang out through
Jackson Heights’ Diversity
Plaza on June 27 in celebration
of the Supreme Court’s ruling
earlier that day against the
Trump Administration’s
attempt to put a citizenship
question on the 2020 Census.
Desis Rising Up and Moving
(DRUM) organized the event
with other South Asian and
Indo-Caribbean community
groups like Adhikaar and
Chhaya CDC to broadcast
the news and invite Jackson
Heights to get involved in
their efforts to ensure their
immigrant communities are
counted properly.
“As a result of today’s
decision, our communities
are now protected. We know
that the data collected in the
census will not endanger us,”
said Fahd Ahmed, executive
director of DRUM. “It is
important for us to get counted
so that we can get the funding
that our communities need
for hospitals, for education,
for transportation, for all of
our basic needs and to make
sure we have representation
in Congress.”
DRUM and other South
Asian groups have been
organizing against the
citizenship question for nearly
a year out of fear that the
ruling would scare members
of the South Asian community
in Queens from participating.
To mobilize against the
impending decision over the
past year, but also to prepare
for the worst, they organized
mass public education events
around the city and gathered
comments for the public
commentary period.
“Even though we’re
celebrating today’s victory we
have to vigilant. A couple of
hours ago, the president put
out a comment saying maybe
we’ll just reschedule the
census by a year,” said Ahmed.
“We’re going to be doing this
community education no
matter what, but obviously
we’re going to be advocating
that there be resources on a
city and state level.”
Prarthana Gurung an
organizer with Adhikaar,
one of the only organizations
focused specifically on the
Nepali community in the
country, said that educational
advocacy is vital in this
process. She pointed out that
there is a large gap between
what is happening of a Federal
level and what members of the
South Asian community hear.
“I was just talking to
a member and she asked,
‘What is this?’ Even before I
could explain the citizenship
question, I had to explain what
a census was,” said Gurung.
Gurung said that for
Adhikaar the stakes in
2020 are especially high. A
recent report shows that the
Nepali community in the U.S.
increased by 206.6% between
2010 and 2017.
“The current census
number for our community
is crazy low. So we know that
there’s a direct correlation
between getting counted and
getting the funding and access
that you need,” she said.
In New York City, the
Mayor’s Office takes on a key
role in apportioning Federal
census funding either within
itself or to outside nonprofit
groups who work rolling out
the collection process.
In 2010 Chhaya CDC
launched a census task
force, which reached out to
100,000 South Asian and Indo-
Carribbean residents in order
to get them to fill it out.
Jagpreet Singh, the
lead organizer for Chhaya,
said that while the count
for Jackson Heights was
successful that year getting
a 90% participation rate, the
effort in Richmond Hill, which
has the second largest South
Asian community in Queens,
was not as successful, with a
rate of only about 50%.
“The process for
community organizations to
figure out who are the people
who are going to roll this out
for us takes time. For those
people to develop a strategy
of like well what are the areas
that we want to hit. If we don’t
have enough time, then you
try shotgun it last minute
and it doesn’t get to the people
that we really need to reach,”
said Ahmed.
Reach reporter Max
Parrott by email at mparrott@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 224-5863, ext. 226.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney says the Supreme Court decision to block
the citizenship question from the 2020 Census is a huge and
welcome victory for Queens. Photo by Mark Hallum
4 TIMESLEDGER, JULY 5-11, 2019 QNS.COM
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