Census

Why do you suppose people didn't want the question on the census? It seems like a logical question for a census, how else are we to know how many citizens we have?

 

It’s amazing that the GOP is literalist about the constitution up until the moment that that means they have to give more representation and funding to areas with illegal immigrants.

 

Ive seen the movie i know what they really up to.

 

Illegal immigrants shouldn't be represented or funded, they shouldn't even be in the country.

 

The founding fathers disagreed with you. So if you want that to change then change the constitution. They were pretty explicit when they said that non citizens, slaves, Indians, and foreign born people should be counted for representation. Unless of course you admit that our founding fathers were not infallible beings and certain aspects of the constitution are poorly constructed and should be changed.

 

1. What is stopping these people from participating in the census so they can be represented.
2. How do they expect to be represented while dodging the count.
3. What is so desperately foul about knowing who is in our country. What's the big secret.

 

Nothing is directly stopping them. But many immigrants (both legal and illegal) are worried that if they fill out the census the federal government will use that information to track them down and deport them. This information isn’t allowed to be shared according to federal law but we’ve seen this administration blatantly ignore federal laws (like many before them) several times and if I was an illegal immigrant I definitely wouldn’t fill it out. On top of that many legal residents who’s status hangs in the balance are worried that they shouldn’t fill out the census out of fear of doing something wrong and having their temporary status revoked.

The whole point is that if we don’t include the citizenship question it’s far more likely that non citizens will respond to the census. Once again the founding fathers (and I think this is one of the areas where they were right) wanted every person to be counted including non citizens because these citizens can’t vote but they much like children, criminals, etc who can’t vote should be represented none the less in apportionment. There is nothing wrong inherently with the citizenship question imo. But the nonpartisan census group already studied this issue and found there will be far more people who don’t respond if they add the citizenship question. I also don’t trust this administration to not use the census info as a weapon against any non citizen who fills it out.

 

In other words, they are opting out of census for fear of getting caught. Yet, they expect representation.
I still don't understand how a legal immigrants status would change for being counted. Unless they fear exposure to some kind of fraud???
Honestly, I don't really care about the question enough to fight over it. There is no assurance any of them will answer accurately anyhow. But in my mind I'm trying to legitimize living here, working, using services, generating trash and waste, contributing to housing and traffic congestion, but not willing to be head counted among their community.
I really think that if they know they are breaking immigration law and trying not to get caught, they'll ignore a census anyways. Few of them understand how funding works or city planning and they have no interest in such matters.
Seems to be the popular band wagon these days to defend aliens over and beyond the rights and well being of our own citizens.

 

When the founding fathers set up the census, citizenship didn't include anyone other than white people. Slaves, Native Americans, and basically anyone that didn't have European heritage were not eligible for citizenship but they did need representation. They didn't exclude those in the country illegally from representation because there wasn't anyone here illegally.

The constitution doesn't say the census can't ask for citizenship status. How else are we to know how many people are living here illegally?

 

Sorry, your reply is too cryptic for my old brain to understand what you mean. Are you saying illegals should be in the country?

 

Constitution seems to be exactly as intended, when it comes to the 2nd amendment, as soon as it's something else that doesn't fit with most conservative views, then it must be outdated, inaccurate and founding fathers didn't account for this and that...

 

You make a good point, the census is for population count, not citizen count however the census question should be on the census for statistical information regardless of how the statistics could possibly be used in the future. They ask for a lot of personal information on the census such as your income and that has nothing to do with population count, this should just be another box.

Even though I can't change the constitution I can still have opinions about what it should say. This is not one of those love it or leave it type situations, I can accept the constitution as it is even though it includes things I don't like.

 

when the census shows up in my mail box it is going to go right through the shredder . We need another representative like we need a hole in our head. Oregon is dam near all democrats all ready. Then when they call my house I am going to tell them to call the cops if they don't fucking like it.

They will call..because they called last time. Way to much personal info other than a head count.imo

 

Last census I had an apartment I stayed at for 3 days a week while at work. I returned the census for my home but figured they wouldn't want me to be counted twice so I tossed the census for my apartment. They eventually came to my door and asked questions anyway.