President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that his administration is “absolutely moving forward” with adding a citizenship question to the census, just one day after Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the question would not be part of the 2020 survey.
“The News Reports about the Department of Commerce dropping its quest to put the Citizenship Question on the Census is incorrect or, to state it differently, FAKE!
” Trump tweeted. “We are absolutely moving forward, as we must, because of the importance of the answer to this question.”It’s unclear exactly how the administration may move forward with the controversial question, which critics said would lead to a large undercount of noncitizens as well as Americans of Hispanic origin.
The Supreme Court dealt an unexpected blow to the effort last week, ruling that the official explanations for the move were implausible and legally inadequate, and sending the case to lower courts for further action.
With such little time before the launch of the 2020 census, Ross announced on Tuesday that the printed questionnaire would not include the citizenship query – a major defeat for the Trump administration.
While there’s a remote possibility that the citizenship question might resurface in a digital 2020 questionnaire later on, it is generally understood that the paper and digital forms must be the same.
Trump has been publicly agitated since the Supreme Court delivered the setback and previously claimed that he even may delay the census to make sure the citizenship question is included.
“Seems totally ridiculous that our government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census, in this case for 2020,” Trump tweeted last week.
“I have asked the lawyers if they can delay the Census, no matter how long, until the United States Supreme Court is given additional information from which it can make a final and decisive decision on this very critical matter.”Article originally published on POLITICO Magazine