House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump wants to add a citizenship question to next year’s Census because he wants to “make America white again.”
The California Democrat says the administration is battling in federal court to insert the question because it would have a chilling effect on who responds. Census Bureau experts and critics of the question say it would discourage people in the U.S. illegally from responding, including large numbers of migrants from Central America.
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Pelosi says at a San Francisco news conference that if people don’t answer their census forms, the administration will win.
The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the question’s inclusion.
The Census is used to distribute congressional seats and government funds. Undercounting migrants would shift federal representation and dollars away from areas where immigrants live.
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