The West Sacramento Mayor says his constituents and those of other mayors and community leaders of immigrant communities need to come together to fight the Trump administration’s latest attempt to undercut their representation by asking about their citizenship status.
In the latest episode of Majority Minority, we examine the Trump administration’s drive to add a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census. It’s a proposal that has riled civil rights advocates and immigration activists, worried mayors, and satisfied conservatives who say adding the question is long overdue.
“In West Sacramento, it’s a life or death issue in terms of funding our flood protection improvements and other essential services,” West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon tells us.
Cabaldon says just the suggestion of adding a citizenship question has already had a chilling effect on the immigrant community in his city. He blasts the question as a conservative end-around on congressional redistricting.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the move and says the data from such a question is “necessary for the Department of Justice to protect voters.”
Mike Gonzalez, a fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, supports the White House and says liberal activists and lawmakers are fear-mongering the issue. He said there’s not “a scintilla” of proof that making this “small change” would lead to an undercount in the census.
“Not everything has to be apocalyptic. The other side is just over the top of this that I just don’t get it,” Gonzalez said.
There is an incredible shamelessness and incredible gall in all of this that is frustrating to live through, but is going to make jaw drawing reading in the history books 30 to 40 years from now.
Leonard Pitts Jr., Miami Herald
And, finally, we talk with Leonard Pitts Jr., a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist from the Miami Herald, to discuss the nexus between the citizenship question and the ongoing battle for civil rights in America.
As we approach the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Pitts offers his insight after returning from Memphis for a story about King’s legacy and the modern-day civil rights leaders that will be featured this weekend in the Miami Herald.
“There is an incredible shamelessness and incredible gall in all of this that is frustrating to live through,” Pitts said, “but is going to make jaw drawing reading in the history books 30 to 40 years from now.”
Email: fordonez@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @francoordonez.