Advocate for a fair Census count.
Happy Sunday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! Today we're following up on our coverage of the census. The U.S. census is a critical aspect of representation, particularly for those most marginalized. And the shift in administration can greatly influence how the rest of the census project unfolds. Here with more is Sayaka.
Our team is going to be on holiday rest for the next few weeks. That means we'll be publishing pieces queued up in advance, including a series of year-in-reviews that will help you reflect and absorb on the conversations we've had here. It also means I'll be slower to respond to inquiries on our channels. If you reach out with a work or editorial related note, you'll receive an out-of-office. But we still have a surprise or two in store before we fully check out...
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TAKE ACTION
Read and share the letter encouraging politicians to support the 2020 Census Deadline Extensions Act.
Follow updates from The Census Project on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-date information regarding the census. You can sign up for their newsletter here.
Follow the Census Counts website for updates on the census.
Find ways to get involved with the Census moving forward.
GET EDUCATED
By Sayaka Matsuoka (she/her)
It’s no secret that this year has been a chaotic roller coaster in many respects, and the ongoing census count is no exception. The census, which has taken place every ten years since 1790, ensures that every person in the U.S. is counted. It also impacts the reallocation of seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and the distribution of federal funding to states.
After much legal back and forth, the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to change the census deadline to October 15th (Vox). Now, as the census data is processed, the U.S. Census Bureau has received national attention for anomalies, as well as for President Trump’s attempts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census altogether.
In July, Trump issued a memorandum stating his intent to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count, something that has never been done before (White House). According to the Constitution, the "whole number of persons" living in each state must be counted to determine how many seats in Congress and Electoral College votes each state gets (NPR). In 2017, there were approximately 10.5 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., accounting for 3.2% of the nation’s population (Pew Research Center). Current estimates put the number of undocumented immigrants between 10.5 and 12 million individuals (Brookings Institute).
Since Trump’s memorandum, federal courts have ruled that Trump lacks the authority to make such a change, and the Supreme Court took up the case for the first time at the end of November (Washington Post).
During the hearing, several of the justices, including newly-appointed Judge Amy Coney Barrett, expressed skepticism over Trump’s action. Jeffrey Wall, the government’s top lawyer, also stated that census officials weren’t sure how many undocumented immigrants would be counted or if it would affect reapportionment. He suggested that people in immigration detention or those ordered to leave the country would not be counted. Later in the hearing, Wall also said that larger categories of immigrants, such as those protected from deportation under DACA, may also be excluded from the count if Trump gets his way (AP). However, when justices pressed Wall about the timeline for processing data, he stated that he couldn’t estimate when the counting would be completed (NPR).
For this administration to exclude undocumented immigrants from the count, the data processing would have to take place while Trump is still in office. But several flaws in the census count jeopardize the census bureau’s ability to hand their numbers to the president by a Dec. 31 deadline (AP). Leaked documents and anonymous sources within the Census Bureau confirmed multiple irregularities in the count regarding residents of college dorms, prisons, and other group living quarters. This category amounted to about 8 million people during the 2010 census. Currently, the irregularities affect about 1 million records (NPR).
Flaws in the count, including excluding whole categories of individuals, could vastly skew how much of an estimated $1.5 trillion a year in federal funding each community gets for Medicare, Medicaid, and other public services (NPR). Suppose undocumented immigrants are excluded from the census. In that case, states with large immigrant populations like New York, California, and Texas could lose House seats and funding, and whiter, Republican states could benefit at the expense of Democratic ones (NYTimes).
📰 Historically, undercounts or irregularities in census data have affected Black and Brown communities the most. To learn more, read our previous post about the census here.
Because of count irregularities and delays, it’s likely that incoming President Joe Biden will be the one calling the shots about the final count (AP). But that doesn’t mean he can just ask for a complete re-do. Because orchestrating the census is extremely laborious (and expensive — it cost $16 billion this year), the likelihood of Biden scrapping this year’s census and ordering a new one in 2021 or 2022 would be unprecedented (NPR). Instead, experts call for the incoming Biden administration to set up a panel of experts to review the quality of the data.
While the deadline for filling out the census has passed, the fight to make sure everyone is counted fairly and equitably isn’t. Urge politicians to support the 2020 Census Deadline Extensions Act, which would extend the statutory deadlines for delivering apportionment and redistricting data to April and July 2021 (Center for American Progress).
KEY TAKEAWAYS
In November, the Supreme Court held its first hearing in response to President Trump’s attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census.
Irregularities in the count show that 1 million records have been affected.
If the bureau doesn’t meet its Dec. 31 deadline to report its data to President Trump, President-elect Joe Biden may be the one calling the shots on the final count in January.
RELATED ISSUES
9/9/2020 | Make the census count.
7/21/2020 | Honor the legacy of Rep. John Lewis.
7/20/2020 | Protect your community from the harm of gentrification.
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