Asian Fortune Your source for all things Asian American
By Jennie L. Ilustre
The nation’s Asian American civil rights organizations have strongly denounced President Trump’s Memorandum to exclude the undocumented from the 2020 Census as “unconstitutional,” and would take legal action to nullify the executive order.
Remarked John C. Yang, Executive Director of Advancing Justice–AAJC, based in the nation’s capital: “There is no end to this President’s attempts to violate the U.S. Constitution. The Constitutional mandate, as upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, is clear. The U.S. Census must count all persons in this country.”
Other groups also swiftly lambasted the President’s Memorandum, issued on July 21, as a violation of the Constitution. “It’s just plain unconstitutional to exclude anyone from the Census,” noted OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates Executive Director Rita Pin Ahrens. The organization said the Memorandum would likely “spark further legal battles in an already confusing election and Census year,”
Executive Director Ahrens pointed out: “Originally created to apportion representatives between the states, the Census is a count of the ‘whole number of persons in each state,’ as described in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. The Constitution does not include any kind of exception based on citizenship or immigration status…To exclude any person in the U.S. from the Census count is patently unconstitutional.”
The organization also noted the executive order would exclude and disenfranchise some 10.7 million immigrants, who are overwhelmingly people of color. Of this total, 1.7 million are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs).
Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), based in San Francisco, California, said: “The order is strongly criticized and will likely face legal action from leading organizations that have been working to ensure a complete Census count.”
Legal Action
Asian American civil rights organizations would likely coordinate the lawsuit with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Recently, ACLU had successfully argued against including the citizenship question in the Census forms before the U.S. Supreme Court. Madalene Xuan-Trang Mielke, President & CEO of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS), made these comments in reply to an emailed question.
She also made the observation that Dale Ho, the attorney who successfully argued the case before the Supreme Court for the ACLU, is an American of Asian descent. ACLU won that case, and the Trump Administration dropped the citizenship question from the Census forms.
“The Census is currently ongoing, and a lawsuit would not put the Census on hold,” she added. “However, if the lawsuit is successful, it would nullify the Trump executive action to exclude undocumented individuals from determining apportionment.”
Census and Election
OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates said that like the failed citizenship question, the executive order “is mainly intended to chill census and election participation by undocumented immigrants and their voter-eligible communities.”
Civil rights advocate Jon Melegrito said in a July 23 email: “Trump knows that this action is illegal and impractical to implement, and the courts will no doubt affirm that. Given his sagging popularity with the American people, he is weaponizing the Census for political purposes: to give his base another reason to keep him in office.”
He added: “This is yet another distraction Trump has created to boost his own reelection prospects, and I might add a desperate move to stay in the White House. Of course, civil rights organizations like MALDEF, AAJC, ACLU, as well as Members of Congress will fight this latest Trump ploy, expose it for what it is, and they will prevail as they did in stopping the citizenship question.”
Why Accurate Count Matters
Remarked CAA Policy Advocate Eva Poon: “Chinese for Affirmative Action denounces this effort to prevent immigrants and communities of color from accessing political representation. We are also deeply concerned about the implications that an incomplete Census count would have on resources needed by vulnerable communities.”
“Given that the Census determines the distribution of $1.5 trillion in federal resources to states over the next decade, full participation in the Census by everyone residing in the U.S. helps protect people’s health and well-being. The federal government should prioritize ensuring full participation in Census 2020, not invoking fear in communities already hit hard by the current public health crisis,” CAA stressed.
OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates said that the Census “profoundly influences our democracy and policy outcomes at all levels of government for the next decade.” It added that Census data are used to decide:
- The apportionment of representation in the House of Representatives.
- The distribution of federal funding for “schools, hospitals, roads, public works and other vital programs.”
- Business decisions in the private sector that affect the placement of “factories, offices and stores.”
“By excluding millions of undocumented immigrants who support families, contribute to their communities, pay taxes, and perform essential labor, the President’s memorandum will deprive localities of the resources and congressional representation they need to help marginalized communities thrive,” OCA added.
Remarked Advancing Justice–AAJC Executive Director Yang: “We cannot allow the Trump Administration to weaponize the Census for political gain. The Census must have an accurate count of everyone living in the U.S. and that data must be used to represent the needs of every individual in every community in this country. Without it, we all will be underrepresented and under-resourced for the next ten years.”
Support for Count Continues
OCA–Asian Pacific American Advocates Executive Director Ahrens said, “These renewed efforts by the Administration to deter Census completion will be met with strong resistance. We know that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are already the least likely to complete their census questionnaires. OCA will double down our efforts to get the word out for a fair and complete count of all community members across the country.”
CAA said the timing of Trump’s memorandum is not coincidental. In-person follow-up by the Census Bureau with households that have not yet completed the Census forms begins August 11 and will continue until October 31.
The organization made the assurance it would continue to outreach to hard-to-count community members to make sure they are fully included in the Census count. It urged community members looking for Census support to call CAA’s Hotline at 415- 761-3222, for assistance in Cantonese, Mandarin, and English.
