Trump has repeatedly undermines the autonomy of public powers and federal agencies in the US. For one, this week he instructed and started a legal battle to impede government departments from following Congress’s instructions and handing in information about his taxes, which came after Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, publically testified about the tax-evasion nature of Trump’s businesses and personal finances.
Second, he is not exempt from concerns of obstruction of justice. According to the Mueller Report: “if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts that the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state. Based on the facts and the applicable legal standards, we are unable to reach that judgment.”
Trump’s eagerness to border the rule of law has influenced his administration, which does not put to rest the wish to destroy institutions step by step, in an effort to impose a socially exclusive vision. Thus, now it is proposing to make the 2020 nationwide census a tool to impulse a political and administrative agenda that will disempower Latinos and immigrant communities throughout the country. To achieve this, they have proposed to include a question on citizenship in the census. However, this will marginalize immigrant communities for fear of participating in it, because of the simultaneous systematic attack against immigrants.
The Trump’s administration’s plan violates the Constitutional mandate to precisely count all those living in the United States. Moreover, the way in which the administration added the question on citizenship violated federal law. Steve Bannon, driven by a discriminatory spirit against the immigrant communities, promoted the inclusion of the question when he was working in the White House—according to information and documents that the Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross (the department to which the US Census Bureau is assigned to) deliberately concealed the Congress.
The wording of the question can lead not only to the exclusion of migrants or residents without citizenship, but also the accurate count of citizens—excluding them by intimidating their families or family nucleus. It is imperative to remember that thousands of migrant families have children or family members at the center of their household who are US citizens (some of whom were born in the US). These citizens live together with other family members, who are either undocumented or processing their immigration status. By including the citizenship question in the census, as proposed by the Trump administration, millions of Latinos and immigrants would refrain from voluntarily participating in the census, evidently affecting its accuracy.
The results of the census are incredibly valuable for communities, local governments, and governorships in the United States. These depend on a precise count for their own planning as well as assigning enough funds for healthcare, education, and other social programs of a federal budget of almost 900 billion dollars distributed, according to the census data.
Calculating the total population is also the Constitutional base to achieve an adequate number of representatives to the Congress per state and the configuration of electoral districts. An inaccurate calculation facilitates gerrymandering and the suppression of potential voters.
Once again, Trump, being Trump, attempts to undermine the democratic institution of the United States in ways that promote inequalities. If this trend continues, soon all US citizens could come to regret it.