Action – Remove Discriminatory Citizenship Question from 2020 U.S. Census! – Deadline, Tuesday, Aug. 7th, 11:59 pm EST
How to comment on this census scam:
- Click here to comment. Write, submit, you’re done.
- You can also submit your comment through the MomsRising.org site here. Add a personal message if you can.
- If you’re interested in reading the administration’s nonsense explanation of this whole scam, click here.
- If you need more inspiration, go here. (currently under construction, apparently)
Background
Why is this census so important?: It’s critical that the U.S. Census gets an accurate headcount of everyone in the United States. The population counts are used to determine:
- how to allocate billions of tax dollars (hospitals, public schools, public services, etc.)
- how many U.S. representatives in Congress a state should have.
- Every state is allocated a number of electoral votes based to the number of senators and representatives in its U.S. Congressional delegation—two votes for its senators in the U.S. Senate plus one for each of its members in the U. S. House of Representatives. Right now, CA has the largest number at 55.
What is the administration doing? They are trying to sabotage the count by adding a discriminatory question related to citizenship, with the goal of discouraging participation and threatening the accuracy of the count. There is currently a lawsuit, filed by 17 states, DC, cities and counties against the Commerce Department for action in ‘bad faith‘ by adding the question for partisan purposes and without regard to the federal government’s scientific standards or the consequences for the accuracy and quality of census data.
Even this conservative commenter doesn’t think that deliberately skewing census data is good for business and messes with the Constitution.
What happens if the count is low? If the Census will undercounts our immigrant population, states with large immigrant or minority populations will lose federal funds and could easily lose congressional seats in the U.S. House. This is a sneaky attempt to transfer political power and money from big, (often blue), states to small, rural, (often red) states.
Can’t people just mark in “No Comment”?: Not only is “No Comment” NOT an option, but leaving questions blank will inspire the government to search through other records to fill in missing responses. An although it is currently illegal to share a person’s census responses with law enforcement or immigration agencies, no one believes that the Trump administration will honor such an arbitrary and easily broken barrier.
We can stop this! Whenever a new regulation is proposed by the government, they must solicit public comments which MUST be reviewed before a rule can go into effect. The Commerce Department is now soliciting comments about the addition of the citizenship question on the Census. The comments must be received before midnight (Eastern Time) on Tuesday, August 7.
Sample comments:
It’s important for your comment not to look like a form letter. Either come up with your own wording or mix up the wording of a sample to sound more like you. Comments can range from one sentence to attached letters.
Sample comment: I request that the Census Bureau remove the proposed citizenship question from the 2020 Census. It is unnecessary, discriminatory, and will lead to an undercount that will significantly compromise the Bureau’s ability to accurately count all “persons” within the U.S.
Sample comment: I strongly urge the Commerce Department to remove the citizenship question from the 2020 Census form. Including an untested, controversial question will undermine the quality and accuracy of the census in every community. The Census Bureau’s own Chief Scientist warned of lower response, higher costs, and a less accurate Census if the citizenship question is included. Including a citizenship question puts the census at grave risk of a significant undercount, especially among hard-to-reach population groups that already are fearful of answering government surveys, according to the Bureau’s own research. The public should not be asked to answer, or pay for, a Census that does not meet scientifically sound standards, in order to achieve partisan, political goals. The addition of this question is a blatant attempt to undermine the 2020 Census – this decision is bad for the census, bad for our communities, and bad for America.
INDIVISIBLE VENTURA 