Heinrich Statement On Supreme Court Rejecting Census Citizenship Question

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 27, 2019) – U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) issued the following statement after the Supreme Court rejected a citizenship question on the 2020 Census form:

“The Census is constitutionally-mandated to count everyone in the United States – and that means everyone. The Court rejected the Administration’s spurious rationale for moving forward with a citizenship question that could have resulted in an undercounting of the population and sent the case back to the lower courts for further review. Time has run out on the Administration’s efforts to undermine the 2020 Census. It should drop the question and move forward.”

In May, Senator Heinrich helped convene a series of roundtable meetings in New Mexico with U.S. Census Director Steve Dillingham and local stakeholders to discuss strategies to ensure underrepresented communities, including rural and tribal communities, colonias, all non-English and limited-English speakers, and children are counted.