On July 21^st, President Trump issued an unconstitutional memorandum mandating the exclusion of undocumented individuals from the upcoming apportionment and redistricting process in the 2020 Census. This unprecedented action will discourage households from responding to the Census and represents an attack on communities of color, immigrant families, refugees, and other groups. Furthermore, as this action will impede counting all City residents, it will result in reduced resources at a time when communities are reeling from the impact of COVID-19 and desperately need services and supports to recover from this health and economic crisis.

When families respond to the Census and count everyone in their households, it means more federal money for New York schools, for health care, for childcare, and for many other programs that help children thrive. In 2017 alone, more than $121 billion in funding was received by programs that children, families and communities rely on. Making sure every person is counted means New York communities get full representation in Congress. It also means our state and local governments across New York have better information to plan for things like the number of children in schools, how many families need health care, where businesses will grow and bring jobs, locations for libraries and parks, the number of childcare centers, and other important services and programs communities need.

Over 6 million children in the United States live in households with at least one undocumented immigrant adult who may be deterred by this memorandum from completing the Census. In New York City, that figure is 27 percent or 265,500 children. We encourage every New Yorker to fill out the 2020 Census to ensure their community has the information and federal resources needed to succeed in the future.

Ultimately President Trump’s action is in direct defiance of Article 1, Section 2 and the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that requires a count of “the whole number of persons in each state.” Further, all Census responses are kept private and confidential under Title 13 of the U.S. Code. The President’s July 21^st memorandum does not and cannot alter these rights nor the Census process.  The Census continues to be a count of every person in the United States.  We need every New Yorker, of every age, to be counted.

If you have not completed your 2020 Census form, you can self-respond to the census online at https://my2020census.gov/ or over the phone in English by dialing 844-330-2020 or in Spanish at 844-468-2020.

Individuals with questions about the Census can call a number of toll-free national census bilingual hotlines offered by our partners to get additional information.

Partners can stay up to date on tools to continue to get out the count for young children and families by visiting www.cccnewyork.org/every-child-counts-nyc, by emailing Carlos Rosales at crosales@cccnewyork.org, or by joining our e-mail list here.