The House Oversight Committee held a hearing on the legality of the Trump administration’s desire to implement a citizenship question on the 2020 census this week, and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) was fiery in his opening statement, casting suspicions on the Democrats for their fervent desire to see the question left off the survey. In some of the most pointed questions yet on Capitol Hill about this issue, Jordan said there was something strange about a party that wanted to put their heads in the sand when it came to the number of citizens living in the U.S.
“I do not know why the Democrats don’t want to know how many citizens are in the United States of America, but for some reason, they’re focused on this question,” Jordan said in his opening statement. “Maybe it’s politics. It seems clear to me we are having this hearing today for that reason. The majority insists on politicizing the 2020 Census.”
Jordan said that he didn’t recall the Democrats putting up a stink when a citizenship question was put on previous Census questionnaires, nor about its inclusion in another highly-effective survey of the U.S. population.
“I’d like to remind my colleagues the citizenship question is not new. It has appeared on previous decennial Census questionnaires and is asked on the American Community survey every single year. The majority apparently does not object to the American Community survey asking a citizenship question, so I don’t understand the majority’s objection to the question now,” he said.
“It is the exact same question on both forms,” he continued. “My colleagues complain the question hasn’t been tested, because it was out at the last minute. This argument’s simply false. The question has already gone through rigorous testing over more than a dozen years as it has appeared on the American Community survey. In fact, the American Community survey required more rigorous testing for this question than the question would have received in 2018 Census tests.”
Frankly, while Jordan made some excellent points about the illogical stance of the Democrats on this issue, they are lucky he didn’t go further. He could have. He could have made the case that what Democrats are actually afraid of is having a proper accounting of how many non-citizens are currently living in the United States. He could have accused them of trying to hide the truth about the illegal alien population in this country. He could have said they were trying desperately to make sure illegal immigrant communities retain their unconstitutional congressional representation.
He would not have been off base.
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