By Mercy Imali
President Donald Trump is pretty disappointed after the US government gave up a controversial attempt to put a question about citizenship on next year’s census.
Trump as usual took to Twitter, “A very sad time for America when the Supreme Court of the United States won’t allow a question of ‘Is this person a Citizen of the United States?’ to be asked on the #2020 Census!”
Trump added that just before the ruling he had asked the departments of commerce and justice to “do whatever is necessary to bring this most vital of questions, and this very important case, to a successful conclusion.”
The decision was announced by the Supreme Court that essentially handed a victory to those who argued the new item would lead to discrimination against minority residents.
This followed a ruling on the case that adding the citizenship question was not convincing.
“We’re glad the #2020Census will begin printing without a citizenship question,” said New York State Attorney General Letitia James. Letitia led a group of states challenging the administration on the issue.
Opponents argued that the question — which has not been included since 1950 — would drive many immigrants to avoid answering out of fear of being caught up in Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration, making them invisible.
Joe Biden tweeted, “Make no mistake, the Trump Administration added a citizenship question to the Census to deliberately cut out the voices of immigrants and communities of color. It’s wrong and goes against our core values as a nation.” Biden is the former vice president and frontrunner in the contest to become the Democratic opponent to Trump in 2020 presidential election