"It tells me that the Census Bureau is greatly concerned about the potential consequences of a citizenship question on census operations," Lowenthal says.
A 2018 national study by the bureau found the question to be a "major barrier" to participation in the head count by every household in the country. That could have long-term implications on census numbers used to determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state receives, as well as to draw new voting districts after the head count. Census data also guide how an estimated $880 billion a year in federal funding are distributed for schools, roads and other public services.
Unlike for the 2020 census, households who do not immediately return a completed census test form will not receive in-person visits from census workers, although the bureau is planning to send reminder postcards in the mail.
Still, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and other immigrant advocate groups are expecting the test to touch off anxieties within immigrant communities.
"A lot of our community members quite honestly have never seen the census form or have never filled it out," says Esperanza Guevara, manager of CHIRLA's census outreach campaign.
Guevara says she and her colleagues are encouraging people to participate in the census, regardless of whether or not it includes a citizenship question. They emphasize that federal law prohibits the Census Bureau from releasing census responses identifying individuals until 72 years after they're collected.
"There's still some hesitancy sometimes in our community given that the Trump administration is certainly a wild card in a lot of senses and has been no friend of the immigrant community," Guevara adds.
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