This article was written by Linda Stewart
There have been multiple news stories in the last 18 months regarding the U.S. Census. Initially, President Trump’s intent was to put a question on the 2020 Census asking if you or anyone in your household was not a U.S. citizen. This action was challenged in the courts, and recently the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the current administration had not presented a sufficient reason to ask the question versus the concerns that a significant number of non-citizens might not complete the census survey with the question. Therefore, asking the question on the census was blocked until the Trump administration could provide a clearer explanation of the need.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, President Trump indicated that he would issue an executive order to have the various U.S. agencies coordinate a collection of U.S. citizenship information, which they already have. Some of those agencies are the Department of Commerce (in charge of the census), the Social Security Administration, and the Department of Homeland Security. The details on how this data sharing will be done have not been made public. However, there will need to be careful attention paid to data security as the citizenship data is will be linked to personally-identifiable information (PII) and must be collected, transferred and stored with the highest level of IT security.
To understand the importance of the census and the current news events to our neighborhoods, it is best to know some of the census history.
The first census was taken in 1790, shortly after the founding of this country. In creating the federal government, the decision was to have two “houses”– the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.
- Each state has two U.S. Senators, regardless of the number of people living in the state.
- Each state has a number of members in the House of Representatives based on the population of their state. Minnesota has eight representatives in 2019.
- In order to have the House of Representatives properly seated, a census is required by the U.S. Constitution as well as the Senate.
- The U.S. census is conducted every 10 years, with the intention of getting an accurate count of all people living in the USA.
Additional benefits to having an accurate census count is the amount of federal funding that is allocated to each state: the more people in your state, the more money given by the U.S. Government for roads, schools and other community services. The final census numbers are also used by the state of Minnesota to determine some long-term budget projections.
With that in mind, the controversy over the 2020 census has been whether the count should differentiate between the U.S. citizens and non-citizens living in a state. It is important to note that whether the residents of a state are U.S. citizens or not, most are using the roads, sending children to school, and/or using community services such as medical care and libraries.
There is the misconception that all non-citizens are illegal aliens and are therefore not deserving of any federal funding. However, there are many non-citizens living in our communities that are hardworking, tax-paying, law-abiding residents and add to the diversity of our neighborhoods. There are many non-citizens holding high positions in Minnesota for multi-national headquarters like 3M, Medtronic and United Health Group, as well as teaching and running research projects at the University of Minnesota and other state colleges.
With all that said, let’s look at why this census is very important to Minnesotans. The number of electoral votes our state gets is also determined by the census, which can impact a presidential election. An accurate count of all living in Minnesota will allow us to keep our allotment of eight members in Congress and eight electoral votes.
The census is important to our community. When the census survey comes to your home in 2020, please complete it!