The U.S. Census Bureau conducts a new count every decade — and the next one is coming up in 2020. Last month the bureau released the questions they intend to use … and one new question has caused vigorous debate and multiple lawsuits.
It’s likely that the addition of this question could be worse for California, the state with the largest number of immigrants, and particularly the Bay Area. If immigrants don’t participate in the census, places with high immigrant populations will be more drastically undercounted. According to city attorney Dennis Herrera, federal researchers found that in fiscal year 2015 more than 130 programs used Census Bureau data to distribute more than $675 billion in funds for things like Medicaid, transportation projects, and the National School Lunch Program.
