Advocate for a fair Census count.

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.

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...

As always, you can support our work by making a one-time gift on our website or PayPal, or subscribe for $7/month on Patreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza).

Nicole

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)

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.

7/8/2020 | Investigate school district funding disparities.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

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Nicole Cardoza 9/9/20 Nicole Cardoza 9/9/20

Make the census count.

It's Wednesday and there's only 22 days left to complete the U.S. Census! You may have already completed this back in April, and that's a good thing – considering how messy the current census counting situation is right now. In case you missed the news, Renée is giving us the overview in today's newsletter. Learn why the extension is necessary for ensuring fair representation of everyone – especially those most marginalized.

And do your part to rally your friends, family and colleagues to take the census! The next best time to complete the census is now.

Thank you all for your contributions. To support our work, you can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Complete the census! You can do it online, on the phone or via mail: 2020census.gov
Create time and space at your (IRL or virtual) office for your team to complete the census.
View where your state ranks on the 2020 Census Response Rates. Then, research specific ways you can help your state / city count – whether by joining text / phone banking initiatives, or spreading the word in your neighborhood.

GET EDUCATED

By Renée Cherez

Beginning in 1790, the United States Census has been part of the country’s constitutional law. Every ten years, every person in America is counted for two main reasons: distributing funds and properly revealing representation. Census findings not only affect the funds and resources allocated to communities, but it also determines the number of seats each state in Congress holds as well as the drawing of congressional and state legislative districts (Census.gov).

On August 3rd, the Census Bureau announced that field data collection would end on September 30th, a full month before the Trump administration’s extended October 31st deadline. (CNN) In an internal document released last week by the Democratic-led House Oversight Committee, Census Bureau officials warned the Trump administration that compressing the Census data timeline would “eliminate activities that will reduce accuracy” (CNN).

Also mentioned in the Powerpoint-styled report is any modifications made to the review process would eliminate or reduce steps designed to ensure the exactness of data before it is made public (Census.gov). With a shortened timeline, there won’t be time to review data that may be skewed in a practical matter before presenting it to the president on December 31st.

A U.S. judge was able to temporarily halt this movement last Saturday, an issue that will remain in effect until Sept. 17 when she will hold a hearing in a lawsuit filed by the municipalities and advocacy groups (Reuters). This move buys the census some “precious and indispensable time” to gather more data (NPR). And this adjustment is critical; a miscount threatens the accuracy of the numbers used for reapportioning seats in Congress and the annual distribution of $1.5 trillion for federal funding of public services (NPR).

The Trump administration’s decision to expedite the census timeline during an election year and pandemic cannot be overlooked. Because the census determines the allocation of seats in Congress, there is undoubtedly a push to receive incomplete data to ensure seats are held by those who don’t have marginalized communities’ best interests over the next decade (New York Mag).

It’s also not the first time the Trump administration has tried to manage the census in a way that sways to their political agenda. In 2019, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, insisted on a citizenship question added to this year’s census (NPR). With Trump’s xenophobic history towards immigrants on full display over the last five years, the Supreme Court blocked the citizenship question from the 2020 census (CNN).

A miscount or no count at all is disastrous for not only Black and Brown communities but also immigrant communities and those experiencing homelessness. Historically, Black and immigrant communities have been undercounted or not counted at all in the census. In 1940, the Census Bureau missed 1 in 12 Black residents (The Guardian). In the 2010 census, 2.1% of African Americans were not counted, including 6% of African American children (Forbes).

Also undercounted: 1.5% of Hispanics and 5% of Indigenous people living on reservations while the white-non Latino population was overcounted by almost 1% (CBS). A 2019 report by the Urban Institute estimates that between 1.1 million and 1.7 million Black residents will be missed in 2020’s census (Urban Institute). However, because of the ongoing pandemic and upending to daily life because of it, years of mistrust of the federal government, the numbers could be far higher.

Racial inequality in national statistics is not new. It has cost the Black community millions of dollars that could have been used for education, mental health services, clinics, businesses, and public programs like Medicaid. An example of this is the disproportionate incarceration rate of Black men.

Black men are incarcerated five times higher than white people, and when the census traces, it documents that Black men are part of the prison population. This inflates the population count and divests funds from Black communities, where incarcerated Black men will eventually return (Forbes). Like the Asian Americans Advancing Justice, who successfully sued the administration over its citizenship question, advocacy groups have voiced their concerns about the new census deadline:

"This new deadline allows Trump to cheat hard-to-count communities of color out of the resources needed for everything from health care and education to housing and transportation for the next 10 years" (CNN).

Like door-knocking, field operations are critical in undercounted communities and counting populations that are most vulnerable like the unhoused. Black people in America only make up 13% of the population, yet, 42% of the unhoused population is Black. The numbers are even higher among Black people experiencing homelessness with children at 52% (ABCNews).

With the deadline fast approaching, Census field agents are now pushing to get into the rural communities that don’t have internet or telephones access. Virtual phone banks organized by advocacy groups are scheduled for September 9th in Chicago, where only 40% of households have completed the census (ABC7). On the opposite end, fieldwork will end in San Diego, a city with a large Hispanic population, which will end on September 18th, twelve days earlier than the official deadline (KTLA).

Almost 230 years later, to the first enumeration, the 2020 Census may be the most critical of our generation as we face down a public health crisis, racial uprisings, an economic crisis, and a federal government steeped in fascism. We must do everything in our power to ensure BIPOC people are counted in this census. If we don’t, these communities stand to lose more than they already have over the last six months of this pandemic and four years of this administration.

key takeaways

The last day to complete the U.S. Census is September 30th.
Black communities are historically undercounted in the Census, leading to millions of dollars lost for valuable resources.
In the 2010 Census, 1.5 million Black and Hispanic people went uncounted.