John,

Excluding undocumented immigrants from the 2020 Census is blatantly unconstitutional—and xenophobic. Today, the Supreme Court heard our case against Trump’s last-ditch efforts to corrupt the census for partisan gain and deprive immigrant-rich states their rightful seats in Congress and tens of billions of dollars in federal funding. 

Immigrants, regardless of status, have been counted in every Census since its inception. Trump’s attempt to erase immigrants from the count is a radical move to deny immigrants personhood and permanently weaken our democracy.

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution states that “representatives shall be apportioned...counting the whole number of persons.” That means counting each and every person, regardless of their immigration status. If not, we all lose. We need our entire community to be counted so we can build an inclusive pandemic recovery and a democracy that works for all of us. 

We fought the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census at the Supreme Court, and we won! Three lower federal courts have firmly ruled against the Trump administration in this case, too. While we don’t yet know the outcome, we won’t stop fighting to ensure that every New Yorker has the political representation they deserve and our state has the funding it needs to rebuild and recover for the benefit of everyone.

Now, it’s up to the Supreme Court to affirm our personhood, uphold the Constitution, and reject this last-minute attempt to corrupt the 2020 Census and undermine our democracy.

Join us in the fight to preserve our democracy—for immigrants and for all of us. 

In solidarity, 

Murad Awawdeh and Rovika Rajkishun
Interim Co-Executive Directors