San Antonio Congressman Joaquin Castro warned today that if President Trump is allowed by the courts to go ahead with a plan to place a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census form, the result could be Texas losing billions of dollars and a lot of political clout, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
"I believe this will cost Texas at least one Congressional seat in the round of redistricting that follows," he said.
Castro says that's because non citizens aren't the only ones who will balk at answering even more intrusive questions to send back to the government.
"Anybody who has seen the Census form knows that it is an intrusive list of questions," Castro said. "This makes it less and less likely that we will get full and complete answers from many people."
Castro says people who are in Texas illegally, as well as DACA recipients and people with incomplete citizenship status will not return the form, and that alone amounts to 1.5 million people.
"I believe it will also affect the response rate from citizens, who don't want to be asked more and more questions by a hostile administration."
Two separate lawsuits are now seeking to have the citizenship question thrown out.
Supporters say the question will help the government understand exactly how many non citizens live in the U.S., and will help enforce the Voting Rights Act.
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