Trump Abandons Attempt to Include Citizenship Question on the 2020 Census

July 11th, 2019

New York Counts 2020 coalition celebrates defeat of the citizenship question on the 2020 Census

New York, NY– Today, President Trump announced that the citizenship question will not be added to the 2020 Census by executive order following rumors that the administration would seek alternative means by which to include the question on the 2020 Census.

Last week, the United States Department of Justice began printing 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without the citizenship question after the Supreme Court blocked the citizenship question and remanded the case to the lower courts.

Steve Choi, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, coordinator of New York Counts 2020, and plaintiff in The Department of Commerce v. New York State et al. said, "The President never made good on his threat of an executive order, because he knew his cheap political ploy would be guaranteed to lose. We beat the Trump Administration in the Supreme Court, and the 2020 Census is already being printed without the citizenship question. If he tries to reinstate the question again, we will continue our fight—and win—in the courts, the halls of Congress and the streets. We will make sure all New Yorkers—and all Americans—of every stripe will be counted in Census 2020."

“With the citizenship question definitively off the 2020 Census, we can work with our coalition partners to ensure that traditionally undercounted populations will be fully counted, funded and represented in Congress,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation.