WASHINGTON— Today, the Trump Administration issued an executive order aimed at excluding undocumented immigrants from the U.S. Census. In June 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the Trump Administration’s efforts to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census finding that there was concern about the motivation behind the Trump Administration’s decision.

“This executive order is unconstitutional and only serves the purpose to please Trump’s campaign and stoke anti-immigrant reactions,” said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva. “?Right before the election, ?Trump and Stephen Miller are flailing for something to hold on to. Trump has totally failed to adequately address and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in our communities and even his own enablers are breaking with him as he runs this country into the ground. Now, he’s returning to using undocumented immigrants as scapegoats to try to scrape together some scrappy coalition of support for his administration.”

The Trump Administration cannot enforce this executive order since the Census has been underway for months and numerous mixed status families and undocumented individuals have likely responded. In compliance with the Supreme Court’s ruling, a citizenship question was not included in the Census.

“The Census should count all persons living in the United States and that includes mixed status families and immigrants—undocumented or documented,” continued Rep. Grijalva. “Trump needs to stop deflecting from his epic failures and stop attacking the integrity of the Census to score political points.”

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