With preparations for the 2030 census already underway, Trump said Thursday he has instructed his administration to start work on a “new” census.
According to a social media post by Trump, that census would exclude millions of people living in the country without legal status — an unprecedented change to how the country has conducted population tallies since the first U.S. census in 1790.
The 14th Amendment requires the “whole number of persons in each state” to be included in a key set of census numbers used to determine how presidents and members of Congress are elected.
The census is optional right? Just… Don’t do it. Or leave that question blank.
You’re missing the point.
The purpose of the census is to determine how many people are living in each district, which in turn, will determine funding, etc.
We are explicitly supposed to count every single person, not just citizens, because what we really want is just accurate data about how many people live in x district. Because things like basic infrastructure is used by everyone, not just citizens (and other various reasons).
By only counting citizens, they are purposely undercounting in areas with immigrant communities so that they will receive less funding, etc., than they are meant to receive.
Trump tried to do this already during his first term, and it was shot down in court. SCOTUS refused to take up the case, saying that it would be “premature” for them to rule on the case at that time. Whatever the fuck that means.
So my guess is that it’ll work this time.
And going back to the 3/5 Compromise, the Founding Fathers had intended to count non-citizens from the beginning; with free residents being counted at a 1:1 ratio and slaves counted at a 3:5 ratio.
It is also important that the line was drawn at residents instead of citizens since states were given wide domain over additional people who could vote. The Federal Government had minimums, but no maximum until what has been recently proposed.
Oh, yeah, I’m a big fan of the census when done properly. But they’re throwing integrity out the window for all the reasons you just stated. So I’m not going to let their racist census reflect reality. “But you’ll get less resources from the government” I live in Denver, they’ll find a reason to screw us over anyway. Like the Brazilian president, I will not humiliate myself by meeting with Trump where he’s at.
It’s just a very ineffective, if not completely counter-productive way to protest it. All you’d be doing by ignoring the census, is furthering the GOP’s goals. Why would you do that.
You know what’d be ineffective? Filling out a fascist census and sending it in unchallenged. I’d rather commit to malicious compliance than straight up compliance.
What you’re suggesting is completely self-defeating.
You do you, but it is just irrational. The logic is unsound, and you’re only helping the fascists.
So we hand over the data willingly? That’s not self defeating? Instead the right thing to do is give this regime quality data? They’re rewriting the data on climate change, I don’t expect them to use this data reasonably either.
The only reason he cares about a 2030 census is he still thinks he’ll be in power. If he is, I don’t think what I put on the census will really matter.
Actually, it is not optional. Kinda sorta.
https://www.aclu.org/documents/frequently-asked-questions-national-census
However, I haven’t found any information saying that there is any penalty at all for not filling it out, or not answering every question. Since the important thing would be to enumerate residents, if any citizenship question appears in the 2030 census I will leave it blank, even if it means I have to mail in the paper form to do it…
OK, OK. But what if instead of not doing it, we do it twice?
It’s not optional. https://legalinsights.us/do-you-have-to-fill-out-the-census-legal-requirements-explained/