Florida Republican calls on administration to ‘reconsider’ citizenship question

GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.) on Tuesday called on the Trump administration to rethink its decision to add a question on citizenship to the 2020 Census. 

The Department of Commerce announced it would reinstate the question on Monday evening.

While Democrats have been vocal in their criticisms of the change, Ros-Lehtinen, who represents a district with a substantial Hispanic constituency, is one of the few Republicans to come out against the move.

I urge Administration to reconsider its decision to add citizenship question on #Census2020 because it will only serve to discourage folks from participating + won’t help our federal agencies distribute resources according to the needs of our communities.

— Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (@RosLehtinen) March 27, 2018

{mosads}Ros-Lehtinen, who is retiring from Congress after 2018, said she feels the reinstatement will lead to fewer people filling out the forms in fear it will be used to track their immigration status. 

“The census is a crucial tool in setting funding priorities for our nation and allocating resources to communities that need it most. Any question that dilutes that purpose should not be included,” she told The Hill in a statement. 

Republican immigration hard-liners including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Tom Cotton (Ark.) and Jim Inhofe (Okla.) praised the administration for its decision, arguing it’s “the only way to get an accurate count” on the number of citizens in the U.S.