UPDATE - US Attorneys General, Lawmakers Take Action To Prevent Unjust Undercount In Census

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published August 13, 2019 | 12:40 AM

NEW YORK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th August, 2019) New York State will lead a 26-member coalition in opposing in court the State of Alabama's attempt to solely include US citizens in the 2020 census rather than count all the people on its territory, New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Monday.

In June, the US Supreme Court blocked the Trump administration's move to include citizenship as a question on the 2020 census, citing insufficient reasoning. President Donald Trump took a different route and ordered all Federal agencies to use other means to get an accurate count of citizens, non-citizens and illegal immigrants.

"No individual ceases to be a person because they lack documentation," James said in a press release. "[W]e are intervening in this case and taking on the role of defendant because the values enshrined in the US Constitution deserve better than a halfhearted and inadequate defense."

Fifteen US states, the District of Columbia, three counties, six cities and the US Conference of Mayors constitute the coalition is the defendant in the Alabama v. US Department of Commerce case in federal court, the release said.

James explained in the release that New York moved to intervene given what she termed was Alabama's "discriminatory agenda" that would tilt the power within Congress and the Electoral College if not all people are counted in the 2020 census.

The goal is to ensure the case is properly presented and every resident of the United States is counted in the census regardless of their citizenship status, the release said.

Senator Dick Durbin led the Illinois congressional delegation in urging Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham to ensure a full and fair count.

"Undercounting is most likely to occur among hard-to-count populations, which typically include low-income households, people of color, immigrants, rural communities, areas without broadband or internet service, undocumented individuals, the homeless, renters, and children under the age of five," the lawmakers said in a letter on Monday. "As such, we believe the services and outreach provided by Area Census Offices (ACOs) in Illinois, as well as local hiring efforts for their staff members, are crucial to the communities they assist."