California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced on Monday that he is filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the inclusion of a citizenship question to the 2020 Census.
"We're prepared to do what we must to protect California from a deficient Census. Including a citizenship question on the 2020 census is not just a bad idea — it is illegal," Becerra and California Secretary of State Alex Padilla, wrote in a column for the San Francisco Chronicle.
"The Trump administration is threatening to derail the integrity of the census" by adding the question, and "it would discourage noncitizens and their citizen family members from responding to the census, resulting in a less accurate population count," they wrote.
"The politicization of the 2020 census must stop now."
They noted that states with large immigrant communities such as California could lose seats in the House of Representatives, and electors in the Electoral College if the population was undercounted.
Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey also slammed the question on Twitter:
Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross announced Monday that the citizenship question would be on the 2020 census.
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