Amendment would derail 2010 Census and the nation’s democratic process
LOS ANGELES, CA –The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO) Educational Fund issued the following statement regarding the Vitter-Bennett amendment to the CJS appropriations bill that would require residents to answer a question on citizenship and immigration status in the 2010 Census:
“The NALEO Educational Fund strongly condemns the Vitter-Bennett amendment to the Senate legislation that will fund Census 2010 operations, because it is an unconstitutional and costly effort to suppress Latino participation in the decennial Census. Moreover, it would derail the 2010 Census and deprive our nation of timely and accurate data critical to our representative democracy. Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) have proposed an amendment to the Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies (CJS) appropriations bill that would require residents to answer a question on citizenship and immigration status as part of the 2010 Census. The Senate may take action related to the amendment in the next few legislative days.
“The proponents of the Vitter-Bennett amendment hope to exclude undocumented residents and possibly all non-citizens from being counted in Census 2010 for the purposes of apportioning Congressional seats. This would thwart the clear language in the U.S. Constitution which mandates a count of all of the nation’s residents for apportionment purposes. In 1868, our nation adopted the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that repealed the provision which only counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. The Vitter-Bennett amendment evokes this shameful legacy, and is an effort to make a fundamental change to our Constitution through appropriations legislation. It represents a reckless departure from decades of our nation’s Census practices, intended to ensure that every 10 years, we have the most accurate portrait possible of America.
For the rest of the article follow link http://http://www.naleo.org/pr/pr10-16-09.html
(Posted by Jesus Galindo)
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