Don't Play Politics With the 2010 Census

We, the undersigned urge you to oppose Vitter-Bennett Senate Amendment 2644. This amendment seeks to prohibit the use of funds by the Department of Commerce for collection of census data that does not include questions regarding U.S. citizenship and immigration status. If enacted, the amendment will intimidate people from participating in the census, and will waste billions of tax dollars.

The Vitter Amendment makes communities even harder to count. The amendment undermines the fundamental goal of the U.S. Census Bureau, which is to accurately enumerate all people living in the United State for the purposes of apportionment and representation. Asking about immigration status in the 2010 Census is unnecessarily intrusive, and will raise concerns among all respondents, both native-born and immigrant, about the confidentiality and privacy of information provided to the government. This will deter many residents from responding, and result in an inaccurate census count.

The Census is about counting residents, regardless of status.
The 14th Amendment to the Constitution clearly states that the apportionment of members of the House of Representatives is based on a full count of residents in each state. This amendment was enacted, in part, to repeal the provisions in Article I in the Constitution, which counted Black people as only three-fifths of a person.  The Vitter-Bennett amendment seeks to re-establish this shameful legacy by creating a new sub-class of residents that will not be counted fairly.

The Amendment wastes billions of tax dollars. If enacted, the Vitter amendment would also stop the 2010 Census in its tracks and prevent census forms from being mailed next spring. This would severely impair the Congressional reapportionment after 2010 and redistricting of congressional and state legislative districts. Ultimately, the Vitter amendment would waste $7 billion in research, planning, and preparation that has already occurred for Census 2010.

We need an accurate count.  Accurate Census data is essential for the health and well being of all people living in the US. As you know, the data is the basis for critical policymaking in a wide range of areas including education, housing, transportation, health and public safety. This amendment, if enacted, will result in an undercount that will jeopardize health and safety in all communities; however, it will disproportionately affect low income communities and communities of color where trust in the Census is already low.

For these reasons and more, we respectfully urge that you oppose this amendment.

Thank you for your consideration of these views.