TUCSON, AZ—Yesterday, the Trump administration announced that it will add an untested, last minute question on citizenship to the upcoming 2020 U.S. Census. In response, Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva issued the following statement:

“President Trump and his xenophobic cronies can’t help but leave any part of our government untouched by their anti-immigrant sentiment. The latest announcement of a citizenship question to the U.S. Census opens the door to federally sanctioned profiling, provides a gateway to a national identification card, and is nothing short of an attempt to intimidate immigrant communities and dissuade them from participating in the important task of accurately counting the country’s residents.

“By discouraging immigrant families from participating in the Census, they will remain underrepresented and their communities will remain underfunded. Instead of turning the Census into an anti-immigrant partisan weapon, I urge my colleagues from both sides of the aisle to protect it by passing Rep. Carolyn Maloney’s Census IDEA Act. By protecting this critical tool of our democracy, we can ensure an accurate count that adequately reflects the population and priorities of communities across the country.”