© 2024 KALW 91.7 FM Bay Area
KALW Public Media / 91.7 FM Bay Area
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Crosscurrents

Why some are fighting the new 2020 census citizenship question

The citizenship question was a late addition to the 2020 census, after the Justice Department requested it to be included.

The U.S. Census Bureau conducts a new count every decade — and the next one is coming up in 2020. Last month the bureau released the questions they intend to use … and one new question has caused vigorous debate and multiple lawsuits.

It’s likely that the addition of this question could be worse for California, the state with the largest number of immigrants, and particularly the Bay Area. If immigrants don’t participate in the census, places with high immigrant populations will be more drastically undercounted. According to city attorney Dennis Herrera, federal researchers found that in fiscal year 2015 more than 130 programs used Census Bureau data to distribute more than $675 billion in funds for things like Medicaid, transportation projects, and the National School Lunch Program.

Tags
Crosscurrents Immigration
Ninna Gaensler-Debs is a reporter and editor for Crosscurrents. Since 2012, Ninna has worn a variety of hats at KALW - she was both a producer and event planner for Localore project Hear Here. Ninna also programmed and organized the Sights and Sounds live events - two in Bayview, and most recently, one in East Oakland.