Phoenix to sue feds over proposed citizenship question on Census
May 22, 2018, 4:14 PM | Updated: May 23, 2018, 8:40 am
PHOENIX — Phoenix City Council members voted Tuesday to sue the federal government over a proposed question about U.S. citizenship on the 2020 Census.
The council voted 7-2 to approve the motion to authorize City Manager Ed Zuercher to “join an appropriate lawsuit to challenge the U.S. Census Bureau decision to include a citizenship question in the 2020 Census.”
Councilmen Jim Waring and Sal DiCiccio voted against the motion.
Mayor Greg Stanton said in a statement that the question about citizenship will “inevitably result in an undercount — and Phoenix and its residents have too much to lose in the 2020 Census count if it’s not done right.
“The purpose of the Census is to get an accurate count of all persons—not to play politics or get involved in issues of immigration,” the statement read.
An undercount of Phoenix residents could affect a number of programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid, the council claimed.
The motion was brought on by Councilman Daniel Valenzuela and Councilwoman Kate Gallego, both of whom are in the running for mayor once Stanton resigns at the end of the month.
The pair said in a Monday letter to Stanton that the city “stands to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from an undercount that will be caused by the federal government’s decision.”
Valenzuela said in a Tuesday statement that the stakes for the Census are “incredibly high. Gallego added that the citizenship question could “jeopardize federal funding allocated to Phoenix to help provide critical public services including police and fire protection, transportation and many other services.”
The census will be taken on April 1, 2020.
More than a dozen cities and states across the U.S. have joined lawsuits against the federal government over the proposed question.