With No Final Say, Trump Wants To Change Who Counts For Dividing Up Congress' Seats

Speaker 1: 00:01 Even with the challenges of the pandemic. People have been responding to the 2020 census count at quite a good rate. But today president Trump threw in a curve ball. He issued a memo directing the administration to exclude undocumented immigrants when calculating congressional districts Trump's moved during the final months of the 2020 census collection seems to violate the constitutional basis of the census, which calls for a count of all persons in the country. And it comes as census takers prepare for one of their biggest challenges doing door to door counts during a pandemic. Joining me is Christopher Wilson. He's associate director with Alliance San Diego, a social justice organization. Christopher Wilson also serves on the California complete count committee. And Christopher, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:51 Thank you, Maureen. I'm glad to be here with you today. Speaker 1: 00:53 How might this move by the Trump administration affect the census count here in San Diego? Speaker 2: 00:59 Oh, this is just another dastardly tactic from a desperate person to hold onto power. It's an attempt to scare people. It's an attempt to limit the power of the people. And it's also, I think in some ways, trying to punish those States that have stood up against his many efforts to, um, to, to ruin our communities and, and, and separate our families. I don't know where this ends, but it's, it could have a huge impact on people participating in the census. When we've already had to overcome one scare with the citizenship question. Here we are at the end of the process facing another scare, Speaker 1: 01:40 Great controversy at a Supreme court decision forbidding the Trump administration to put a citizenship question on the census. If there is no citizenship question, how would anyone be able to exclude undocumented immigrants from the congressional seat count? How would they even know who they were? Speaker 2: 01:57 Well that's, that's a very good question. I don't have an answer to that question. I don't know how they would accomplish this. We know that when it comes to the census, because of the way the data is released, it's not, it's not individualized. Um, and so how the census Bureau would eliminate undocumented folks from a count of any congressional district is difficult to imagine for me. And when it comes to redrawing, the districts that work is not done by the federal government. And so they don't have a hand in it. California's congressional districts will be drawn by the California citizens, redistricting commission, and those folks are not under any obligation to follow an executive order from president Trump and Washington D C. And so how this will actually be accomplished as a mystery to me. Speaker 1: 02:46 Do you expect there will be a legal challenge? Speaker 2: 02:49 I certainly expect a legal challenge. Uh, I read in an article, the ACLU is already working on filing a legal challenge. We got wind of this executive order over the weekend, and immediately organizations across the country started working on how they would fight it. Alliance San Diego will re release sustainment shortly, Speaker 1: 03:10 Even though the citizenship question has been kept off the census, has it had an effect on response rates, Speaker 2: 03:17 The fight and the controversy over the citizenship question was enough to scare people into not participating and not just undocumented people. We're talking in a region where half of the residents have undocumented family members. It scared people who have no reason to be afraid from participating. And we've been calling residents all over San Diego County to try to get them to participate in a census. And we're still hearing from folks that they have a real fear for what it might do to family members or even themselves if they participate. And so this is just another tactic to drive down the count and areas like San Diego and States like California will be hard hit by this. Speaker 1: 04:00 How is San Diego doing in terms of response rates? Speaker 2: 04:03 I would say San Diego is doing great. We've already matched our 2010 self response rate. And, um, we're going into the last phase of our public outreach called non-response followup, which is definitely gonna take the self response rate up a little higher. So, you know, those things, uh, tend to make me think that we're doing good. Speaker 1: 04:23 What's the actual number of response rate here in San Diego, Speaker 2: 04:26 Right at 67 68%. Speaker 1: 04:29 And how does that compare with the nation as a whole? Speaker 2: 04:32 We're doing much better than the nation. We're leading the nation by several percentage points. Speaker 1: 04:36 Christopher, remind us why it's important for San Diego ans to respond to the census, Speaker 2: 04:42 To COVID and, and the, the fight for racial justice and all the other very public instances of, of civic participation. We said it was important to participate so that San Diego could get its full distribution of resources and funding from the federal government. We said it was important to participate so that communities know how to plan properly for resources and programs for residents. I think now more than ever, we see with COVID-19 and with the fight for racial justice and all the conversations around budget allocations and resource distribution, that the census is a very important tool to make sure that we, um, keep our community safe and healthy. Speaker 1: 05:22 And how will the door to door census taking be changed by the COVID? Speaker 2: 05:28 I think the federal government is still trying to figure that part out. We know that a numerators were supposed to have gone out already. That's been delayed several times. I believe it's delayed because we're seeing no decrease in the number of cases and infections from COVID. I think that, um, they're trying to find an effective way to go door to door without, you know, proper guidance and information from the federal government. The public will not feel safe with people knocking on their doors that they don't know, even wearing a mask standing six feet away. That's not enough to build the level of trust folks need. And I think the leadership at the top of this country has to come out and support the guidance from the CDC and how we protect everyday citizens. Not to mention the census enumerators who will be going out and knocking on doors. Speaker 1: 06:21 And when is that supposed to start? Now? Speaker 2: 06:23 That's supposed to start, um, midway through August. Speaker 1: 06:26 I've been speaking with Christopher Wilson, he's associate director with Alliance San Diego. He's also serves on the California complete count committee. Christopher, thank you so much. Speaker 2: 06:37 Thank you, Maureen. It's great to be with you today.