Democrats are worried that if there is a citizenship question on the 2020 Census, illegal immigrants (and perhaps even legal Hispanic immigrants) won’t participate. This, Democrats fear, will lead to their being underrepresented in Congress and to the states where they predominate receiving less-than-deserved Federal funding.
But there’s a simple remedy to this fear — a remedy entirely in the hands of the Democrats themselves. In the run-up to the Census they can campaign actively for all immigrants, legal and illegal, to fully participate. That would also be the law-abiding solution. In fact, for the Democrats to continue arguing, as they have been, that inclusion of a citizenship question will suppress the immigrant vote is to implicitly encourage a law-breaking boycott. It fosters the impression that Democrats condone lawbreaking and expect to be politically and financially rewarded for this by extra House seats and extra federal funds transferred to their local and state bailiwicks.
As most readers are doubtless aware, whether a citizenship question appears on the Census is now being adjudicated by the Supreme Court in United States Department of Commerce v. New York, no. 18-966. Democrats are in deep despair at the prospect that a conservative leaning Court will approve the citizenship question by a 5-4 majority.
Democratic arguments before the Court and in their affiliated press have included the following arguments:
- that Commerce Secretary Ross put the Department of Justice up to requesting that the citizenship question be added to the Census in order to support the Voting Rights Act;
- that inclusion of the citizenship question would depress immigrant participation in the Census, which is why it hasn’t been asked on the short form Census since 1960; and
- that the Commerce Secretary ignored the recommendations of the Commerce Departments staff.
Taken together, it is argued that these are violations of administrative procedure and thus the Commerce Department should be forbidden to ask about citizenship status on the standard Census form.
To this it was replied in Court
- that the citizenship question had been common practice on many earlier Censuses;
- that the question would help enforce the integrity of the Voting Rights Act and equal representation of citizens in Congressional districts under reapportionment;
- that inclusion of the question is common practice in the censuses of other countries and recommended practice by the United Nations;
- that unelected bureau staff are beholden to their secretary, who is appointed by the elected president, not the converse; and
- that if Census questions could be vetoed on the argument that they might lower participation of select subgroups, almost any question could be suppressed (transgender individuals, for example, might threaten to boycott over a question concerning birth sex).
Democrats have trouble understanding incentives, basic as they are to economics and effective policy-making. They pass rent control acts, which suppress housing supply and upkeep. They pass minimum wage laws, which hurt small businesses and minority youth employment. Some of their representatives (Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez) praise socialism, which destroys economies by destroying incentives to work, save, and innovate.
Republicans have been kindly trying to educate (“nudge”) Democrats on the importance of incentives. The Tax Reform Act of 2018 gives Democratic-controlled states an incentive to moderate their taxes lest more residents flee to low-tax states. A citizenship question on the Census will give the Democrats a strong incentive (money, votes) to campaign for universal participation in the forthcoming Census — as opposed to concealing illegal immigrants in sanctuary cities.
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