Trump Moves Deadline for 2020 Census to October 15
by Emerald Staff
As we reported back in September, every ten years, all residents — including citizens and non-citizens from the very youngest babies to oldest elders and including those who are houseless — are counted. These counts help to determine the number of Congressional seats and Electoral College voters as well as federal funding for cities and states for all kinds of programs ranging from education to transportation.
The Washington Census Alliance is a broad-based coalition composed of over 90 community organizations, including many in the South End. They have been working to ensure the widest possible count in our diverse communities, including Census 2020 participation in numerous languages, with youth, the houseless, and other underrepresented community members. According to their manager, Kamau Chege, it's not over yet — Congress can extend the time to process the information to ensure accuracy of the information they do have:
Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court responded to an "emergency" request from the Justice Department that will allow the Trump Administration to shorten public participation in Census 2020. With only Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissenting, the decision to suspend a lower court order paved the way for the Trump Census Department to halt gathering Census 2020 information. Earlier, President Trump failed in an attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count entirely.
The new deadline is tomorrow, Thursday, October 15, 2020.
"There are other places, specifically in South King County, that I feel like are going to be missed due to the shifting end dates and now the rush on nonresponse follow-up," Dulce Gutierrez Vasquez, Executive Assistant at El Centro de la Raza, told us in previous reporting on their census work.
Don't delay, fill out the census today. You count. Make sure you and your community are counted!
Additional alliance information is available here.
Featured image attributed to Arlington County's Flickr account under a Creative Commons 2.0 license.
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