The Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to toss a lawsuit filed by several Texas Latino groups to block the question about citizenship from appearing on the 2020 census.
The Mexican American Legislative Caucus, Texas Senate Hispanic Caucus and others argue the question is unconstitutional and will lead to an undercount.
“It's very clear it is motivated by race and animus toward Latinos, non-U.S. citizens and foreign-born persons,” says state Rep. Carol Alvarado, D-Houston.
“When you look at why people of color don't participate, it's the fear,” she says. “It's fear of information being used for other reasons aside from counting.”
Steven Camarota, director of research at the Center for Immigration Studies, says there's no proof it will lead to lower participation.
“It does seem kind of a strange argument since we regularly ask it on a whole series of Census Bureau surveys, to argue this is going to be a problem to put it back on the Census,” he says.
However, a lower Census count could cost states both congressional seats and billions of dollars in federal money.
“You can actually track that monthly question that we include on the survey we're using to measure unemployment to see if it's causing a problem, and it doesn't appear that it's causing a problem, it looks like the response rates are staying about the same,” says Camarota.