Washington to join challenge to 2020 census citizenship question

OLYMPIA – Washington will join other states in a legal challenge to the Trump administration’s plans to ask about a person’s citizenship status on the 2020 census form.

State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who has sued the administration over policies ranging from travel bans to transgender service in the military, said Tuesday he will join a multistate challenge of the citizenship question announced earlier in the day in New York.

“The Census Bureau’s own research reveals asking people about their citizenship status could significantly undermine its constitutional mandate: an accurate count of everyone in the United States, regardless of immigration status,” he said in a news release.

Although the Census Bureau does not turn over information about immigration status to other federal agencies, immigration experts contend that some undocumented residents will refuse to fill out census forms for fear of being deported and not be counted.

The state’s large immigrant population needs an accurate count to get proper congressional representation and the distribution of federal funds, Ferguson said.

At a news conference after signing the state budgets, Gov. Jay Inslee said he agreed with Ferguson’s decision, calling the question a “challenge to democracy” because it could affect who gets counted in the census. Washington is trying to increase participation in the democratic process with new laws to expand voter registration, he said.

“It’s vile, unjust and undemocratic,” said Inslee, the head of the Democratic Governors Association and a frequent critic of Republican President Donald Trump and his administration.