Why it matters: Undocumented and documented immigrants will be unlikely to answer the census call for fear of reprisal (using collected information and forwarding to ICE). This would in turn affect all benefits that rely on the census and are population driven, from House of representative appointments, to federal grants on infrastructure, aid, disaster relief, medicaid, etc... States that could be impacted include California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, NY, Florida. That's without accounting for cities which may be densely populated by immigrants and further impacted. https://www.politico.com/story/2018/10/07/kavanaugh-supreme-court-first-case-880193 Kavanaugh’s first vote could be in Trump executive power fight Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s first vote as a member of the Supreme Court could come as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday on a Trump administration request testing how much power courts should wield over top executive branch officials. The administration has already made one unsuccessful run at the high court on the issue: It asked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last week to step in to block depositions of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and Justice Department civil rights chief John Gore in lawsuits challenging Ross’ decision to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 U.S. Census.
"The decennial census generally included a citizenship inquiry for more than 100 years through 1950". Up until 2000 the citizenship question was included on long form surveys which were sent to every one out of six households. The Census bureau is simply adding back a question that has been on the decennial survey for over a hundred years. It is not illegal to ask people if they are citizens on a Census -- this has been done for decades and the information requests in Census surveys have always been held up in court cases as appropriate. Once again -- this is merely reinstating a question that has always been on the Census survey until 2010. 'Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross “has determined that reinstatement of a citizenship question on the 2020 decennial census questionnaire is necessary to provide complete and accurate census block level data,” the statement said.' Anyone making a fuss about it is only driven by a political agenda and has their facts wrong. https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...-question-to-2020-census.319587/#post-4630428
Immigration enforcement was basically non-existent before 1950, there was no perceived harm whatsoever to answer truthfully. Also, we didn't have a scapegoating lunatic in the WH. https://www.cbp.gov/about/history/1924-border-patrol-established The Border Patrol was first permitted to board and search a conveyance for illegal aliens in 1952. Agents also were allowed to patrol all territory within 25 miles of a land border.
Which is exactly why it is necessary to bring back immigration enforcement and the citizenship question on the Census. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback
So we're in agreement that the Census could/would use the data for immigration enforcement then? I don't see what you're arguing here? You also make the argument that it's fabricated outrage; are you also denying the census numbers drive policy?