Arizona’s congressmen split on attempt to keep migrants off census
Gosar calls presidential memo "common sense" - Grijalva calls it "unconstitutional"
WASHINGTON, D.C. (KYMA, KECY) - Yuma County's congressmen could not disagree more about President Donald Trump's latest attempt to keep undocumented migrants off the 2020 U.S. Census.
The president signed a new memo Tuesday which seeks to keep such immigrants from being counted. Mr. Trump previously tried to add a citizenship question to the census, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked it. So the president signed an Executive Order directing federal departments and agencies to collect that information instead.
Census results are used to determine the number of seats each state gets in the House of Representatives. They're also key to the equitable division on federal funds.
Congressman Raúl Grijalva believes the undocumented need to be counted. In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, Grijalva called Trump's memo a political move ahead of the November election. The representative says everyone needs to be counted.
““This executive order is unconstitutional and only serves the purpose to please Trump’s campaign and stoke anti-immigrant reactions. Right before the election, Trump and Stephen Miller are flailing for something to hold on to.
Trump has totally failed to adequately address and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities and even his own enablers are breaking with him as he runs this country into the ground. Now, he’s returning to using undocumented immigrants as scapegoats to try to scrape together some scrappy coalition of support for his administration.
The Census should count all persons living in the United States and that includes mixed status families and immigrants—undocumented or documented. Trump needs to stop deflecting from his epic failures and stop attacking the integrity of the Census to score political points.”
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
However, Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) completely disagrees. In a tweet, Rep. Gosar called the memo "common sense."
The @realDonaldTrump order on not counting illegal aliens in the census is common sense and constitutional. “The constitutional concept of one person, one vote and the basic rights of citizenship are shredded when states create policies that encourage” illegal aliens. @LimitGovt
— Paul Gosar (@DrPaulGosar) July 21, 2020
The memo will likely draw legal challenges.
The U.S. Constitution directs Congress to conduct a census to count "persons" living in the United States. It does not distinguish between citizens and non-citizens.
As of July 16th, 62% of American households had completed their forms.
