Federal Court Orders Trump Admin to Remove Census Citizenship Question
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
The Federal Court rejected the addition of President Donald Trump’s citizenship status question to the 2020 census.
On Tuesday, January 15, U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ordered the Trump administration to stop its plans to include the question "Is this person a citizen of the United States?" on the census.
Read the decision here
The decision comes after Rhode Island was one of 18 states to sue the Trump administration over the question back in March, as GoLocalProv reported.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"This decision is fair, just and critically important. I convened a press conference with my colleagues Mayors Elorza and Grebien immediately after the Citizenship Question was proposed. We stated clearly that the Constitution requires the government to count every person -- not every citizen -- and that the Citizenship question would drive down responses in immigrant communities, creating an undercount and depriving cities of political representation and money for education, health care, and housing. I am thrilled that the Federal Court has agreed,” said Central Falls Mayor James Diossa, who is also co-chair of the Rhode Island Complete Count Committee.
The ruling is expected to be appealed to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court.
RI Census Committee
As GoLocalProv reported in December, Governor Gina Raimondo signed an executive order to establish the Rhode Island Complete Count Committee in order to ensure that the 2020 U.S. Census does not undercount RI’s population.
Diossa and Rhode Island Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott serve as co-chairs of the committee.
"We only get one shot at this, and it's absolutely critical that we get it right. The results of this Census will have serious implications for our state for the next decade, which is why it's so important that every single Rhode Islander is counted. This Committee will help us do just that,” said Raimondo.
An accurate Census count is needed for communities to receive appropriate federal funding and adequate representation in Congress.
According to Raimondo’s press release, the Complete Count Committee will develop and coordinate a census outreach program to increase awareness about the census and encourage residents to respond.
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