House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi gathered with fellow Democrats on May 8 to argue that the Trump administration decided to include a citizenship question in the 2020 census as part of a partisan effort to “starve communities” of vital resources and undercount minorities.
In March, Commerce Department Secretary Wilbur Ross announceda “question on citizenship status” would be reinstated to the 2020 Census questionnaire “to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.” The decision was prompted by a request from the Justice Department to add a citizenship question.
“It is not based on data, but a decision simply rooted in American First nationalism,” charged Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), who added that it was clear the change exposed an anti-immigrant bias and a disdain for minority communities.
In order to determine their motives, Gomez said it was necessary to introduce in the House a resolution of inquiry to force the Commerce Department to hand over documents related to their reasoning.
The press conference echoed the tone taken since March by Democrats and open border advocates.
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) offered a preview of his performance at an afternoon hearingof the House Oversight and Government Reform committee on the status of preparations for the census.
Although the hearing was held after Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) agreed to the demands of the minority, that fact did not prevent Cummings from attacking Republicans.
“Trump cannot [undermine the accuracy of the Census]without the aiders and abettors in the Republican Party,” who Cummings added, were preventing Democrats from conducting oversight.
Pelosi called the decision a “desecration of the Constitution” and a “dog whistle” to anti-immigrant supporters, while Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) went one racially-explosive step further when he said adding the citizenship question was “ethnic cleansing.”
At the conclusion of the dramatics, Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) was asked why their effort was not bipartisan. She had a simple and illuminating response.
Maloney, said there were Republicans who’d joined a lawsuit filed by 18 state attorneys general – in particular Oregon’s attorney general.
Maloney, should be aware that Oregon attorney general Ellen Rosenblum is like all of the others involved in the lawsuit a Democrat. In this argument, motives and rhetoric matters, but apparently not the facts.
6 Comments
Democrats are simply using this to try to increase voters for by pandering to illegal immigrants. We have a right to know how many actual citizens are in the country and how many illegal immigrants.
The only reason Democrats are against this being in the census is because they want illegals to be able to vote for them. It would be great to know how many illegals are in the US. Probably many more than we think.
Great move. Congressional representation should not be distributed based on the number of non-citizens living in a given area.
The government has to count the number of people in the United States per the Constitution. There is no reason the to keep the government from knowing how many people are citizens and how many are not citizens.
This is a ridiculous argument.
The Dems and open borders advocates don’t want the true numbers to be known. After all they’ve been using the 11 million number for nearly 20 years.
I can’t vote in foreign countries elections. Why would I want an illegal immigrant voting in American elections.If other states vote for this then send mean absentee ballot so I can vote in your states elections.this is not racism it’s a conflict of interest.this is not racism it just makes sense.These politicians are supposed to be working for us not illegal immigrant. They are supposed to be getting things done for America not people who commit crimes.