Civil rights advocates and states are preparing to unleash several legal challenges to the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the next US Census, calling the move a threat to civil rights and designed to penalize immigrants.
The move came from the Commerce Department late on Monday, in response to a Justice Department request, and will see a citizenship question on the Census for the first time since the 1950s. The administration claims it needs the data to enforce the Voting Rights Act, created in 1965. The plan was immediately challenged in federal court by the state of California, with Secretary of State, Alex Padilla and Xander Becerra, the Attorney General, slamming it as anti-immigrant.
Padilla also attacked the US Commerce Department, claiming that it was ignoring its own protocols, as well as years of preparation in a deliberate attempt to suppress an accurate and fair census count from the nation’s diverse communities, and accuses the Trump administration’s claim of protecting voting rights as contemptible and laughable. New York also announced a separate multi-state lawsuit intended to challenge the decision, on Tuesday.
The move was also blasted by Eric Holder, the former Attorney General for the Obama administration. He said his voting enfranchisement organization will also be pursuing litigation. White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, claims the move will help voters to be protected by the Department of Justice, and the Commerce Department insists the main priority is to get accurate and complete data.