Pascrell Assails Latest Trump Attempt to Wreck the Census

PATERSON, NJ – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today assailed Donald Trump’s directive seeking to block the Census from counting immigrants, his latest attempt to destroy the decennial national count for political purposes.

“Last July, the Supreme Court slapped down Donald Trump’s naked attempt to destroy our Census,” said Rep. Pascrell. “Stopped at the ballot box and at the courthouse, Trump is trying to subvert our sacred national count yet again. This executive order reeks of contempt for our Constitution, and especially the Fourteenth Amendment which requires States count the ‘whole number of persons’ when apportioning congressional districts. This is nothing but an attempted political power grab that would rob immigrant communities of their constitutional right to democratic representation. Hopefully the courts make quick work of this order. In the meantime, Congress must immediately take steps to block this unconstitutional directive.”

Representing one of the most vibrantly diverse districts in the nation, Pascrell has been one of the leaders in Congress sounding the alarm on the negative impacts of Trump’s attack on the Census. In an April 2019 op-ed, Pascrell warned that Trump’s politicization of the Census through the inclusion of a citizenship question would pose “devastating” consequences for America and “risk[] the undercounting of minority-rich, immigrant-driven communities across America” and especially in “diverse states like New Jersey.”