'The Damage Has Been Done': Despite Court Ruling, Experts Say Trump Succeeded in Making Immigrant Communities Fearful of Census

Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s rejection of the Trump administration’s attempt to add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, rights advocates said Friday that the damage to immigrant communities across the country is likely already done.

The administration had been planning to add the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?” to the ten-year survey, a move which critics feared would result in an undercount that could be significant enough result in federal funding cuts for marginalized communities and the loss of representation in Congress. President Donald Trump had argued the question was needed to improve enforcement of the Voting Rights Act—reasoning the court found “contrived.”

“Whether the citizenship question is included or not included, there is already a lot of fear instilled in the immigrant community.”
—Maricela Rodriguez, California governor’s officeAfter the 5-4 ruling was handed down Thursday, immigrant rights groups and lawmakers quickly set to work encouraging all residents of the U.S. to participate in the census next year, opening their doors to government workers for the ten-year survey that aims to count everyone in the country.

“If you don’t participate in the census, Trump wins,” California’s Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Thursday.

Newsom’s warning came amid heightened fears of the Trump administration and any government employee who might come to an immigrant family’s home.

Under Trump’s orders, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has already arrested hundreds of undocumented immigrants this year. Days before the high court handed down its ruling the president had threatened to begin ICE raids in several cities as part of a plan to arrest and deport “millions” of undocumented immigrants, before walking back his threat.   

“Really, the damage in terms of creating fear around the census has been done,” Maricela Rodriguez, Newson’s civic engagement director, told the New York Times. “Whether the citizenship question is included or not included, there is already a lot of fear instilled in the immigrant community.”

As Jose A. Del Real reported in the Times, many residents in Los Angeles’s predominantly Latino MacArthur Park neighborhood do not plan to answer their doors to census takers, citing the fear of ICE raids.

“We came here to work, just to work, and it is better to keep the door closed,” Pedro, a 50-year-old resident who is an undocumented immigrant, told the Times.

“The very people who are being told by activists to keep their doors closed if ICE agents pay a visit are also being told to open their doors for government census workers, so they can be counted,” wrote Del Real.