Harris accuses GOP of ‘weaponizing’ 2020 Census

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) accused Republicans of “weaponizing” the 2020 census by including a question about U.S. citizenship, saying the Trump administration is “violating the idea that everyone counts.”

“The census is supposed to get a full and accurate count of the U.S. population,” Harris tweeted on Friday night. “By weaponizing the census, this Administration is violating the idea that everyone counts.”

The census is supposed to get a full and accurate count of the U.S. population. By weaponizing the census, this Administration is violating the idea that everyone counts. https://t.co/AIO92FqXQv

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 12, 2018

The senator was responding to a new study in the San Francisco Chronicle which found that her state of California is vulnerable to miss as many 1.6 million people during the next census questionnaire.{mosads} 

The report from the nonprofit Public Policy Institute of California found that many immigrant communities worry about their privacy on the census’ new online system, which would create “major concerns about the accuracy of the 2020 Census.”

With 75 percent of Californians belonging to population groups that are normally undercounted in the census — children, young men, Latinos, African-Americans and renters — California risks losing a House seat if the population data is inaccurate.

Many immigrants are also concerned about President Trump’s decision to add a question to the U.S. citizenship test for the first time since 1950, the study states. 

The Commerce and Justice departments, meanwhile, have maintained that the question is needed to help enforce the Voting Rights Act.

California was one of several states to take legal action against the Trump administration and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross over the addition of the citizenship question.

It filed a lawsuit earlier this year and a federal judge ruled against the administration’s attempts to block the case in August, allowing it to move forward.