Jeffrey MervisThe U.S. courts and Congress might be the ultimate arbiters of the fate of President Donald Trump’s new order to exclude undocumented residents from the 2020 census tally now underway.
At stake is how many seats each state gets in the 435 seat U.S. House of Representatives, a decision that could shape the country’s political landscape for the next decade.But demographers and statistical scientists also have a dog in the fight: The integrity of the Census Bureau.
Researchers worry the bureau’s effort to satisfy the president’s wishes could sully its gold-plated reputation by assigning it a task no statistical agency can carry out.The agency’s job is to conduct a complete and accurate census and report out the results.