The Trump Administration issued an unconstitutional memorandum on July 21st telling the Secretary of Commerce to exclude the number of undocumented immigrants from counting toward congressional apportionment, as determined by the currently ongoing Census. In solidarity with our undocumented community members, OPAWL released the following statement and resolves to continue fighting for the political power we all deserve.
“OPAWL rebukes this act by the Trump administration. This is blatantly unconstitutional and xenophobic. Donald Trump and Stephen Miller are knowingly driving people away from participating in the 2020 Census and undermining the goal of getting a complete count of all people residing in the U.S., which is what our constitution mandates. Undocumented immigrants are part of our families and communities, and this administration’s attempt to manipulate the census according to their white supremacist goals will deprive all of us of resources that are needed for our communities to thrive. We will continue to organize and advocate to ensure everyone – regardless of immigration status – knows that they should be counted in the census.”