Constitution
requires ALL people to be counted
By
Steve Ahlquist for
UpRiseRI
In
response to United States President Donald Trump‘s memorandum that seeks to
exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted in in the apportionment of
congressional districts, the State of Rhode Island and the cities of Providence
and Central Falls will be suing the administration, according to Central Falls
Mayor James Diossa, during a July 22 press conference.
“Our
City Solicitor, Matt Jerzyk, just informed me that we
should expect a lawsuit to come from the State of Rhode Island, Providence and
Central Falls, shortly,” said Diossa.
The
press conference was called by community leaders and elected officials to
underscore the critical importance of counting all Rhode Islanders in the 2020
census.
“The
signing of this memorandum three weeks to the day before the Census Bureau is
set to start doorknocking will make undocumented immigrants in our
hardest-to-count communities less likely to answer the door to be counted,”
said Mayor Diossa, co-chair of the Rhode Island Complete Count
Committee.
“Rhode Islanders need to know that the data they provide to the United States Census Bureau is protected by federal law and cannot be shared with law enforcement or immigration officials.”
“Rhode Islanders need to know that the data they provide to the United States Census Bureau is protected by federal law and cannot be shared with law enforcement or immigration officials.”
“We
are here to remind everyone that the Constitution is very clear,” said Providence City Council President Sabina Matos (Ward 15). “And it says that the census
must count everyone living in the United States, every immigrant, every child.
every neighbor.”
Trump,
said Channavy Chay, Director of the Center
for Southeast Asians, “is turning our community upside down,
creating more fears with this census… We’re going to make sure that our
community counts.
If
the 29,000 undocumented immigrants in Rhode Island are not counted by the
census, said Marcela Betancur, Director of the Latino Policy Institute “that will deeply harm our
state. Not only financially, but also through other types of resources through
the next decade.”
Steve Ahlquist
is
a frontline reporter in Rhode Island. He has covered human rights, social
justice, progressive politics and environmental news for nearly a decade.
atomicsteve@gmail.com
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