CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JULY 26, 2019, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“WHY CALIFORNIANS MUST GET COUNTED, TRUMP MACHINATIONS OR NOT”
The
Census ball is now very much in California’s court. President Trump’s bald
effort to punish California for providing Hillary Clinton with her 2016 popular
vote majority has been at least blunted by a narrow 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court
decision in June tossing the issue of a citizenship question back to the lower
court that previously nixed it.
It’s
anyone’s guess whether the Census Bureau now controlled by Trump lied when it
said it has started printing Census forms without the question: “Is this person
a citizen of the United States?”
But
there’s no guesswork about what could happen if that query is included. Since
1949, Census officials have said using the question widely would cause vast
undercounts of undocumented immigrants who don’t trust Census assurances of
confidentiality and fear deportation as a consequence of participating. Census
confidentiality promises have been honored in the past.
Trump’s minions
lied consistently about why they want the question in. They said it was to help
the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which has never
been enforced under Trump. New evidence emerging since that federal court in
Maryland ruled the question out, in the form of previously secret emails,
plainly shows the motive for the question is entirely political.
The
Supreme Court decision hinged on the obvious disgust of Chief Justice John
Roberts, a Republican appointee of ex-President George W. Bush, over lies told
by Trump’s secretary of commerce, Wilbur Ross. Roberts wrote that those
falsehoods demanded he cast a rare vote with the high court’s four-member
liberal minority, possibly deep-sixing the question.
Meanwhile,
the Constitution requires every human being in the country be counted, citizen
or not.
Ross has insisted
he sought to insert the citizenship query used before 1950 because of the
Justice Department’s desire.
The
prior lack of Voting Rights Act enforcement made that statement enough of a lie
to offend Roberts. Did Ross also lie when he said the Census Bureau, which he
supervises, had to start printing forms by July 1 for them to be ready for the
March 1 beginning of the count?
Meanwhile,
Trump proposes to ignore the Supreme Court and include the question by
executive order. If Ross and the Census Bureau are not lying about the print
timetable, of course, Trump would have to be content with including the query
only on some forms or as an addendum.
Trump also has
speculated about delaying the Census, contrary to law and precedent.
All
this leaves any Census-driven parts of California’s future up to Californians.
If a citizenship question spurs millions of the undocumented to refuse
participation, this state could lose at least one seat in Congress, one or two
electoral votes in presidential elections and many billions of federal dollars
earmarked for housing, highways, sewers, public schools and much more.
Question
or none, an undercount will only happen if Californians let it. Most Census
experts believe low participation rates caused at least one million to two
million Californians not to be counted in the 2010 Census. A repeat would make
life more difficult and less consequential for many Californians.
So
Californians, whether citizens or not, must step up now and protect their own
interests. Anticipating something like today’s scene, ex-Gov. Jerry Brown and
state legislators last year allocated $90.3 million for Census information and
outreach.
That’s
about $3 for every California resident, which the state will spend encouraging
participation and discouraging anyone who’s thinking of hiding from federal
Census takers. Brown and his allies considered spending $90-plus million on TV
and newspaper ads, social media and community meetings a prudent investment
that promises to produce far more in new money than it costs.
The
effort is needed because, even without the decrements brought by a Census undercount,
Trump already allots an average of about 6 billion less federal dollars each
year to California than it got under ex-President Barack Obama.
The
one way to change this kind of steady mistreatment, minimization and
denigration of California while Trump holds office is to maximize the state’s
Census count. That will only happen if virtually all Californians participate.
-30-
Email
Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com. His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough,
The Most Promising Cancer Treatment and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch
It," is now available in a soft cover fourth edition. For more Elias
columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
No comments:
Post a Comment