The Trump administration’s plan to add a question about citizenship status to the 2020 census has been met with multiple lawsuits, as reported previously on The Show. Several states have filed suit, as have some individuals from here in Arizona.
Their concern? If the federal government asks everyone if they are a citizen of the country or not, many immigrant communities will avoid the census altogether out of fear of retaliation. That could lead to a under-count, which would mean those communities wouldn’t get millions in federal funding that they need.
Last month we spoke with Alejandro Chavez, grandson of Cesar Chavez, about his concerns for his community. He recently joined a legal challenge to the addition of the question. “A question asking about your citizenship and not marking it in a census — that is the first way to go into the shadows. And that’s like, where people just started coming out of,” Chavez said.
Now, the 17 members of the Arizona Latino Legislative Caucus have joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) as a plaintiff in a federal suit filed in Maryland that contests the move by the Trump administration. The Show was joined by Rep. Diego Espinoza, a Democrat and co-chair of the caucus.
