Alexandria Joins Brief Challenging Census Citizenship Question

ALEXANDRIA, VA—The City of Alexandria is one of 190 jurisdictions and officials that filed a brief in the Supreme Court challenging a citizenship question addition to the 2020 U.S. Census.

The brief is in support of the State of New York plaintiffs in the Department of Commerce v. New York case. The jurisdictions and officials represented in the brief claim the question would negatively impact the accuracy of the count, which determines the allocation of more than $900 billion of federal funding.

According to NPR, the Trump administration proposed adding the question. The Supreme Court will take up the case after two federal judges ruled against adding the citizenship question. Arguments before the Supreme Court are set for April 23.

The brief states that a citizenship question would cause an undercount of populations that are already hard to count, including racial and ethnic minorities, immigrant populations and non-English speakers. The U.S. Census Bureau cannot share census responses with law enforcement, immigration, tax, or other agencies.

According to a U.S. Census Bureau estimate, any person not counted in Alexandria results in the loss of $20,000 of funding over 10 years.

"Every member of the Alexandria community benefits when our population is counted accurately and we receive our fair share of federal funding," said Councilman Canek Aguirre, chair of the city’s Complete Count Committee. "The addition of an unnecessary citizenship question will deter responses and result in inaccurate census data that diverts hundreds of millions of dollars away from vital public programs and infrastructure here and around the country."

The U.S. Census takes place every 10 years as required by law. The Census determines how many U.S. House seats a state will receive, as well as distribution of federal, state and local funding for various services. The U.S. Census Bureau will mail forms and open the online response form in March 2020.