Trump Has Created a Census Conundrum for Latino Groups With Planned Citizenship Question

Source: nbcnews.com

Each decade, the government enlists help from various civic and community groups to encourage people — particularly those difficult to reach, remote or less trusting — to fill out and return their census forms. But the Trump administration has created a conundrum for many groups that serve Latinos and immigrants because the Census Bureau plans to ask people on the 2020 census to state whether they are a citizen, U.S.-born or naturalized or not a citizen. On the one hand, an under count of Latinos and other households with immigrant family members can diminish their representation in Congress and that of their states, reduce the cities' and states share of the $675 billion distributed by the federal government and lead to unsound legislation based on faulty numbers. On the other hand, groups and companies are uncertain how they can encourage families to fill out the census when they themselves do not trust the administration’s intention for including a citizenship question.