Washington: US President Donald Trump backed down Thursday on a push to force a controversial question on citizenship onto the 2020 census following a backlash by civil rights campaigners.
###
Critics said the administration wanted to add the question to suppress participation by immigrant communities in the once-a-decade survey that helps officials determine where to allocate federal resources.
###
“We are pursuing a new option to ensure a complete and timely count of the non-citizen population,” the president told a news conference at the White House.
###
Two weeks ago, the Supreme Court seemingly ended a legal and political battle over the issue, concluding that the Trump administration’s stated reasons for including the question were “contrived” and blocking the move.
###
Stung by the conservative-majority high court’s 5-4 decision, Trump raised the possibility of forcing the issue with an executive order, or even postponing the census.
###
The stakes are immense: the census helps determine the disbursement of $675 billion in federal subsidies and the number of seats in the US House of Representatives allocated to each state.
Click Here: Celtic Football Shirts###
A question on citizenship, which was dropped more than 60 years ago, could stop between 1.6 and 6.5 million immigrants from participating or answering truthfully, according to census officials.
###
Immigrants living in the country illegally would especially be reticent, out of fear that they would be identified for deportation.
###
As he announced the U-turn, Trump said he would sign an executive order requiring federal agencies to provide the Commerce Department with immigration information from their existing databases.
###
“It is essential that we have a clear breakdown of the number of citizens and non-citizens that make up the US population. Imperative,” he said.