Chairs Maloney and Raskin Issue Statements on Trump Administration's Unconstitutional Attempt to Exclude Undocumented Immigrants from 2020 Census Count

Statement

Today, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, issued the following statements after the Trump Administration released a legal memorandum attempting to ban undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 Census:

"President Trump's latest effort to exclude undocumented immigrants from the 2020 Census count is flatly unconstitutional, and it demonstrates once again that President Trump will stop at nothing to politicize our democratic institutions and harm entire communities for his own political interests," said Chairwoman Maloney. "The Supreme Court already struck down the Trump Administration's craven attempt to add a citizenship question to the Census, and today's action is exactly what the Trump Administration claimed over and over they were not going to do. Taking this step right in the middle of the ongoing Census is particularly egregious and sinister because it appears purposefully designed to depress the count, deter people from filling out their forms, and corrupt the democratic processes on which our nation is founded."

"Today's memorandum shows President Trump's inexhaustible contempt for our constitutional system and the rule of law," said Chairman Raskin. "The U.S. Constitution requires "an actual Enumeration' of the "whole number of persons' in the country for "apportioning representatives among the states in Congress.' By excluding undocumented immigrants from apportionment or redistricting, this Administration departs from more than two centuries of practice and constitutional understanding. We fought and defeated the President's last attempt to scrawl his anti-immigrant graffiti all over the Census, and we'll stop him again now."

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