Not Backing Down In Quest For Immigration Figures: Donald Trump

Washington: US President Donald Trump has announced that his administration was “not backing down” in the fight to know how many citizens and non-citizens were in America, at a time when the country is increasingly divided over the immigration issue.

Previously, the White House had fought to include a question on citizenship in the 2020 census, which was subsequently blocked by the Supreme Court, Xinhua news agency reported.

In the days before Trump’s Thursday’s announcement, rumours swirled in the press that Trump would fight the Supreme Court’s decision.

In a speech at the White House, Trump said due to litigation and opposition, the US administration would not push for the inclusion of the question in the decennial census.

However, he issued an executive order to have every government department collect data on how many citizens and non-citizens are living inside the US. The departments would then have to hand over all information to the US Department of Commerce.

By issuing his executive order, Trump effectively circumvented the Supreme Court to find an alternative way to find out how many illegal migrants are living in the US, instead of challenging the decision of the nation’s highest court.

“We will defend the right of the American people to know” how many citizens are in the US, which is “vital” to forming policy, the President said.

We must know “how many illegal aliens” are in the United States, he said. “We’re aiming to count everyone”, he added.

Trump’s executive order came at a time when the immigration issue is of crucial importance to his base. Many Trump supporters believe illegal migrants take working class jobs, depress wages, and bring drugs and crime over the border.

Democrats had pushed against including the citizenship question in the census, with House leader Nancy Pelosi saying Democrats would challenge the White House if it tried to include the citizenship question.

Before Thursday’s decision, experts argued that many immigrants would not likely answer such a question, and that could reduce population counts in the census that are utilized to figure out how many seats in Congress each state is given. (IANS)

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