SACRAMENTO — Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Lakewood) and Assembly Elections and Redistricting Chair Marc Berman (D-Palo Alto) today released the following statement in response to the U.S. Commerce Department seeking to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 Census questionnaire:
“The Trump Administration’s Census question about citizenship undoes almost 70 years of progress. It takes us back to 1950 – the last time the U.S. Census Bureau used such a question – in a cynical attempt to intimidate immigrants and hurt states like California that have made immigrants welcome.
“Our California Attorney General and Secretary of State have made clear that adding a citizenship question to the Census would hurt voter rights. Moreover, it appears this question is being rushed into use without the kind of testing and vetting that the decennial Census so badly needs in order to produce accurate results.
“The White House’s Census meddling is yet another sign that the Trump administration would like to take us back to a past where immigrants, women and racial minorities were discriminated against; where discrimination against the LGBTQ community was not just tolerated, it was the law; before a war on poverty; before voter rights; and before environmental awareness.
“We join with every other leader, in and out of California, who insists on the Trump Administration abandoning this fruitless and harmful questioning.”
Kevin Liao (916) 319-2063, Kevin.Liao@asm.ca.gov (Rendon)
Kaitlin Curry (916) 319-2024, Kaitlin.Curry@asm.ca.gov (Berman)