New York, NY—Today, new evidence emerged in a court filing that Thomas Hofeller, a Republican strategist and redistricting specialist, encouraged the Trump Administration’s transition team to include the citizenship question in the 2020 Census to enhance the Republican Party’s ability to gerrymander districts and deprive immigrant-rich areas of political power. Dr. Hofeller, in his analysis for a report commissioned by conservative news outlet The Washington Free Beacon, found that adding a citizenship question to the Census “would clearly be a disadvantage to the Democrats” and “advantageous to Republicans and Non-Hispanic Whites.”
Steve Choi, Executive Director of the New York Immigration Coalition, released the following statement:
“This most recent discovery provides unequivocal proof of what we already knew: the citizenship question was designed by white supremacists intent upon denying immigrant-rich states political representation. Hofeller spent his political career rigging our democracy in favor of the Republican party, and his newly discovered role in pushing the Trump administration to add the citizenship question to the Census comes as no surprise. The integrity of our democracy lies in the hands of the Supreme Court—and all the evidence necessitates that they uphold the ruling on our case against the addition of the citizenship question. Similarly, New York State and New York City must rise to the challenge and ensure our immigrant neighbors and other marginalized groups are counted by allocating $40 million each to ensure a fair and accurate census to preserve our political power and access to billions of dollars in funding to maintain critical programs that benefit all residents.”