If the 2020 census isn't in a state of crisis, it is awfully close. The coronavirus pandemic, of course, has made pretty much everything about contemporary life in America a lot more difficult.
More than a quarter of households remain uncounted, and by definition those are the folks hardest to reach. Then there are the unknown impacts from raging wildfires in California and elsewhere in the West, hurricanes in the Gulf states and whatever other natural calamities might unfold over the next month.
Census experts, including former directors, warn that undercounts are likely and that the results of the constitutionally mandated tally may be too unreliable to be used for its prime purpose: reapportioning 435 seats in the House among the states.
So what to do? If the critics' worries prove out and there are massive undercounts in immigrant-heavy and low-income areas, the ensuing reapportionment will likely tilt in favor of the Republicans who have pursued policies seemingly designed to, at a minimum, undermine the census takers. Remember, the push to add the citizenship question arose from a Republican political operative, Thomas B. Hofeller, who specialized in gerrymandering, and among Commerce Department officials who urged the Justice Department to ask for the question under the pretext that it was needed to enforce the Voting Rights Act. The U.S. Supreme Court saw through that charade and stripped the question from the census.
After that ruling, President Donald Trump last year ordered federal departments to scour records to help determine "the number of citizens and noncitizens in the country" to influence policy decisions.
In July he issued a murky "Memorandum on Excluding Illegal Aliens From the Apportionment Base Following the 2020 Census" that states, "For the purpose of the reapportionment of Representatives following the 2020 census, it is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status ... to the maximum extent feasible and consistent with the discretion delegated to the executive branch."
But that discretion is limited: The census counts everyone living in the U.S. (with a few exceptions such as for diplomats), regardless of immigration status, and the 14th Amendment requires seats to be apportioned based on that full count.
The nation needs this current Congress — and the one that will take over in January and receive the apportionment numbers — to fulfill their responsibility to ensure the 2020 census is as accurate as possible.
FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
