Pa. commissions denounce Trump memo excluding those in U.S. illegally from census

Several Pennsylvania commissions are denouncing an executive memorandum signed by President Donald Trump last week that seeks to bar people who are in the United States illegally from filling out the census, the once-a-decade survey that determines federal funding and congressional seats.

Trump, who signed the memorandum July 21, said “respect for the law and protection of the integrity of the democratic process warrant the exclusion of illegal aliens from the apportionment base, to the extent feasible and to the maximum extent of the President’s discretion under the law,” the Associated Press reported.

In a joint statement released Tuesday, members of the state’s Asian Pacific American, African American, Latino, Women and LGBTQ Affairs, and Governor’s 2020 Census Complete Count Commission said the memorandum will cause “confusion and distress” in immigrant communities, as well as decrease participation in the census.

They added that the exclusion of any resident from the census opposes the constitutional mandate to “count every person in the U.S.”

“The resulting undercounting of the actual population of many communities will drastically decrease their allocation of federal dollars for critical services, including education, transportation, health care and more,” the statement reads. “This in turn will severely impact all — citizens and non-citizens — who reside in these communities for the next decade.”

Luz Colon, executive director of the Governor’s Advisory Commission on Latino Affairs, noted that to make a change like the memo requests in the middle of the count will “impact the response and will deteriorate trust and cause panic in communities all around the nation, including many U.S. citizens and USA-born children.”

As of July 14, about 91.8 million households across the country had responded to the census. In Pennsylvania the response rate sat at 65.7%, census data shows.

The Trump administration is once again facing backlash following the announcement, with three federal lawsuits filed days after the memorandum was signed.

According to NPR, the suits were filed by Common Cause, a government watchdog group, a New York state-led coalition of 20 states and immigrant rights groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union.

This is the second time the administration has found itself in court regarding the census. A months-long battle to have a citizenship question to the survey was squashed by the Supreme Court last month, with the majority saying the efforts appeared to be contrived, AP reported.

As the legality of the recent memo is questioned, members of the Pennsylvania commissions said they continue to urge immigrant communities to participate in the census.

“The divisive language from Washington should not be embraced when, above all, the census is one of the most fundamental civic duties in our American society,” Norman Bristol Colón, executive director of the complete count committee said. “We will continue to do our job in full compliance with the Constitution of counting every Pennsylvania resident regardless if they have been here for generations or they just moved to our state in 2020.”