[V]ermont has joined a coalition of states and cities challenging a Trump administration decision to include a question about citizenship status on the upcoming Census.
Attorneys general from 17 states and the District of Columbia, along with six city mayors, filed suit in federal civil court in New York on Tuesday against the Department of Commerce and the Census Bureau.
The administration announced last month that a question about citizenship status would be included on the next Census form. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, argued the data would safeguard against voter fraud.
In the filing, led by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, the plaintiffs argue the question will “fatally undermine the accuracy” of the next survey, which will take place in 2020.
The 54-page filing asserts the question will result in an inaccurate population count because it will dissuade people living in the United States without documentation from responding, out of fear the information could be used against them.
The Census Bureau has not asked about citizenship as part of the decennial survey since 1950. According to the filing, bureau officials have resisted efforts to include questions about citizenship since the 1980s, out of concern that it would impact the accuracy of the results.
Data collected through the Census is used — among other things — to calculate the number of members a state sends to the U.S. House of Representatives.
The suit also argues that an inaccurate survey will hurt states financially. Census data is also used in determining how much money states get from federal programs such as Medicaid, highway maintenance and child care.
According to the court filing, 20.3 percent of Vermont households did not return their census forms by mail during the 2010 Census, requiring the bureau to follow up with meetings in person.
Compared to other states involved in the filing, Vermont’s population of undocumented immigrants is relatively low. About 4.5 percent of Vermonters are immigrants. As of 2014, about 8 percent of immigrants in Vermont were undocumented, according to the filing.
New York reports having the fourth largest population of undocumented immigrants in the country.
Connecticut reported that immigrants make up 14.4 percent of the state’s population. A quarter of them are undocumented.
Natalie Silver, a spokesperson for Vermont Attorney General TJ Donovan, said that the attorney general “feels strongly that a citizenship question on the Census violates the Census’ constitutional purpose and would result in an inaccurate count of Vermont’s, and many other states’, population.”
“The Census shall count the ‘the whole number of persons in each state,’” Silver said. “That means everyone.”
Donovan denounced the addition of the citizenship question last week. Vermont Secretary of State Jim Condos also has come out against the inclusion of the question.
The suit also charges that the administration bypassed the typical process for changing questions on the Census, substituting “a hasty and unprecedented” four-month process during which the question was not suitably vetted.
Peter Teachout, a constitutional law expert at Vermont Law School, said if the addition of the question resulted in even a small decline in the response rate to the next Census, it could have a major impact on how states are represented in Washington and the federal resources they receive.
If immigrants do not return their Census forms, states with large populations of undocumented immigrants, like California and New York, could see a decline in the amount of money they receive for programs like child care and highway maintenance.
“Those federal funds don’t go on citizenship. They don’t go on legal residency. They go on number of persons,” Teachout said.
Teachout noted that the Census is a constitutionally required process, and an accurate count is critical for representation and distribution of resources.
“If (the question) suppresses the response rate, you don’t know how much it suppresses the response rate,” he said.
Teachout said that it is “impossible” to predict how the courts are likely to rule in the case. However, there is a tight timeline given that the Census is due to take place in 2020.
Procedurally, he said, it is likely the states will ask for a preliminary injunction stopping the federal government from going ahead with the question. Court proceedings could play out early next year, and it could potentially be appealed to higher courts in the middle of next year.
