FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JULY 2, 2019
Contact:
leyen trang
Communications & Social Media Coordinator
leyen@aaopmn.org
Asian American Organizing Project (AAOP) Approves Administration’s Decision to Drop Citizenship Question
ST. PAUL — The Trump administration announced today that the 2020 Census will move forward without the citizenship question.
AAOP welcomes the Trump administration’s decision to leave the citizenship question off the 2020 Census to ensure a more accurate count.
“We’re glad that our organizing efforts to stop the addition of the citizenship question has succeeded and that the Trump administration has confirmed that the 2020 Census will proceed without the citizenship question,” Executive Director Linda Her says. “This news means that our communities and the families we work with are able to be counted without fear.”
The Census data is used to allocate governmental funding for programs such as public housing, roads, public schools, and other important programs. But the data has also been used in the past to incarcerate Japanese Americans in internment camps — illegally. Since the incarceration of innocent Japanese Americans, the U.S. Census Bureau created measures to protect data compiled from the Census.
“The Census continues to be an important conversation our communities must have,” Issues Organizer Isabela Alesna says. “It’s understandable that many of our communities are fearful and concerned about the Census, but with the new measures to protect data it’s vitally important that our communities complete it to ensure an accurate count.”
The census takes place once every ten years. Ensuring an accurate count for the upcoming Census 2020 is vitally important to all Minnesotans. If our communities are undercounted, this would mean Minnesota will not receive our fair share of federal funding, services, and representation.
In late March 2018, the Trump administration announced the inclusion of the citizenship question on the 2020 Decennial Census. The addition of the citizenship question to the upcoming 2020 Census would cause a severe undercount of many communities, especially communities of color, immigrant families, and low-income communities.
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