Tucson and Pima County leaders are considering joining legal action against the Trump administration over a citizenship question added to the 2020 U.S. Census.
The local officials are concerned about a decision by the Census Bureau to resurrect a question about citizenship status, something that was last used on the 1950 questionnaire.
Elected leaders have reasons to be concerned â if more people shy away from talking to census workers in the coming years, it could affect a number of calculations related to federal dollars coming into Southern Arizona as well as the overall makeup of the U.S. House.
Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild wouldnât rule out the possibility of suing the federal government as several other states have already filed or are planning to, including California and New York. Officials there and in other states with large immigrant populations have said including the question is designed to discourage immigrants from filling out the forms, thus creating an undercount of their populations.
On Tuesday, Rothschild said he was giving serious thought on whether Tucson should join in legal action, but that he wants to read the court documents that have been filed before making a decision.
The mayor wants to double the proposed budget of $250,000 for outreach efforts ahead of the census, noting the city struggles when it comes to reaching the poorest members of the community to participate in the count.
Contacting people through email, phone or mail to educate them on the census is relatively easy but simply doesnât reach everyone, he said. Going door to door is effective but time-consuming and expensive, he said. âWe are trying to reach people who arenât in the mainstream but are using city services,â the mayor said.
The goal of raising $500,000 to inform the public about the census would come from a mix of public and private dollars, said Farhad Moghimi, the executive director of the Pima Association of Governments.
Councilwoman Regina Romero wants to spend even more, saying that $1 million would be necessary for a sustained campaign to reach Southern Arizona residents to explain why they should participate in the census.
âIt is still not enough money, but we can say we did a really good and concerted effort to count everyone,â she said.
After all, she believes, it is a small amount compared to what is at stake â a decade of federal funding. Population estimates, which come directly from once-a-decade census counts, has an impact on federal community development programs, funding for public transportation, housing and school districts. The count also determines the number of seats a state has in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Romero said Tucson should join with other states in court over the citizenship question.
She is suspicious of the motives of the Trump administration and Department of Justice, saying she wants a federal judge to determine whether the decision to put the question about citizenship status on the 2020 census was racially motivated.
Pima County Supervisor Richard ElÃas said without significant outreach efforts, he fears a sizable amount of people in Tucson and Pima County wonât be counted.
He notes that while the population in Pima County is on an upswing, federal dollars continue to dwindle, and competition for federal funding intensifies every year.
âIt doesnât take a math genius to see that we have to participate,â ElÃas said.
