City of North Las Vegas councilwoman Pamela Goynes-Brown speaks during a campaign to inform critical count neighborhoods about the importance of completing the census at La Bonita supermarket in North Las Vegas, Thursday, July 2, 2020.
Friday, July 24, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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Here’s a plea to Nevadans: Help spread the word that everyone living in our state, including undocumented immigrants, can and should participate in the 2020 U.S. Census. Doing so could literally save lives.
President Donald Trump’s lawless push to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in the census will likely be struck down by the courts, but it nonetheless threatens to leave Nevada undercounted. It’s an obvious attempt by Trump to intimidate or mislead undocumented immigrants into not participating. He signed his memo on the issue shortly after census workers began going door to door to count households that didn’t return mailed census documents or complete online versions of them.
An undercount in Nevada could have especially dire consequences as the state struggles with the coronavirus pandemic. That’s because the results of the census are used, among other reasons, to apportion federal funding to states for public health and other social services. That includes public housing, food programs, etc., that support Nevadans who have lost jobs or income amid the crisis.
Nevada simply can’t afford a weakening of this safety net.
Nor do we have to, despite Trump’s actions. The memo he issued Tuesday calling for the exclusion of undocumented immigrants carries no weight — Congress has final authority over the census. And you can bet that the Democrat-controlled House, at least, would reject Trump’s action soundly.
It’s 100% unconstitutional on Trump’s part. The Constitution specifies that “persons” residing in each state must be counted every 10 years, and the 14th Amendment further states that the count needs to involve the “whole number of persons in each state.”
It’s clear the census needs to include everybody living in the U.S., regardless of their citizenship status. As New York’s attorney general stated when she vowed to challenge the memo, “No one ceases to be a person because they lack documentation. Under the law, every person residing in the U.S. during the census, regardless of status, must be counted.”
The Supreme Court further underscored that point when it rejected a bid by Trump to include a citizenship question on the census — another effort aimed at cowering undocumented immigrants into not participating.
Trump’s clear goal is to weaken political representation in states and communities with large immigrant populations, in favor of tipping power to the largely white rural and suburban areas that Republicans tend to control. That’s because the census results are used to determine the number of seats each state gets in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In Nevada, experts say an undercount of the undocumented immigrants living in our state probably wouldn’t result in us losing any of our four House seats. However, it could lead to shifts in congressional district boundaries that would leave communities of color with less representation.
It’s critical for all Nevadans to know that they can still respond to the census online, by phone or by regular mail. For information on responding online or by mail, visit 2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond.html. To respond by phone, start by dialing 844-330-2020 for English speakers or 844-468-2020 for Spanish speakers. Other lines are available in 12 other languages, and can be found on the census website.
This is information well worth sharing. Fortunately for Nevada, a large coalition of advocacy organizations is working hard to ensure everyone is counted.
“Refusing to count Nevadans who are integral to our communities, contribute to our economy, and are deeply and daily affected by the decisions made by our government is not only immoral but unconstitutional,” said Rudy Zamora, program director for one of the groups, Chispa Nevada, in an emailed statement. “Every Nevadan, regardless of immigration status, should be counted. Our state relies on accurate counts to provide services and resources to all. We won’t stop making sure immigrant families participate in the census. (Latinos) helped build Nevada, and we count.”
Indeed, and the same applies to all communities in Nevada, including traditionally hard-to-reach populations like Native Americans living in remote locations.
A full count in Nevada is in the best interests of all of us.
