(AP) – President Donald Trump is suggesting the census be delayed indefinitely as he blasts a Supreme Court decision putting a hold on his administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
Trump tweeted Thursday that it “Seems totally ridiculous that our government, and indeed Country, cannot ask a basic question of Citizenship in a very expensive, detailed and important Census.”
And he says he has asked government lawyers if they can delay the Constitutionally-mandated Census, “no matter how long” until the Supreme Court is given additional information “from which it can make a final and decisive decision.”
Federal law states the census must begin April 1.
The high court on Thursday maintained a hold on the administration’s efforts to add the citizenship question. Opponents say there’s no time to revisit the issue before next week’s start to the printing of census forms.
The Supreme Court has put a hold on the Trump administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census, leaving it unclear whether the question will ultimately appear on the form that’s supposed to start printing next week.
The Census Bureau’s own experts predict that millions of Hispanics and immigrants would go uncounted if the census asked everyone if he or she is an American citizen. And immigrant advocacy organizations and Democratic-led states, cities and counties argue the citizenship question is intended to discourage the participation of minorities, primarily Hispanics, who tend to support Democrats, from filling out census forms.
They argued to the Supreme Court they would get less federal money and fewer seats in Congress if the census asks about citizenship because people with noncitizens in their households would be less likely to fill out their census forms.
