Trump is the Republican’s puppet to gain political advantage

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Since the 1950s, the controversial census question about a person’s U.S. citizenship status has never been an issue.

That was until the Trump administration entered the White House.

According to NPR, the policy idea became a reality this March when Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, used his authority over the census to add the question, “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”

More than two dozen states and cities have filed at least six lawsuits against the Trump administration to avoid having that question in the census.

The controversy behind the question is due to the fact that the census determines how the $800 billion federal budget funds each state, the total number of votes for the Electoral College, and how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives.

With the question being added to the census, there won’t be an accurate representation for anyone living in the U.S.

The question is not about cracking down on undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. but is more of a political strategy to gain control of the U.S government for the next 10 years.

The Republican party is using the citizenship question through the Trump administration to scare and intimidate immigrants from taking part in the census.

According to Pew Research, undocumented immigrants make up 13.5 percent of the U.S. population and that 13.5 percent of the U.S. population shouldn’t go ignored.

The Voting Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination in voting and the citizenship question is a violation of that.

However, according to USA Today, Ross defended the citizenship question by saying that the request has nothing to do with politics and came directly from the Department of Justice (DOJ).

It is very unlikely that’s the situation as the citizenship questions came from Ross in a written request to the DOJ in December 2017.

The bigger picture is that the Republican party is trying to put themselves at a political advantage for the next 10 years through the 2020 census. When the Republicans get their hands on the results from the 2020 census with the citizenship question enforced, they have the power to shift everything to their advantage.

They could shift the Electoral College in their favor when electing a president, give Republican states more federal funding, and reshape districts to gain more Republican seats in the House.

According to Pew Research, the majority of immigrants live in major metropolitan areas such as California, Illinois, and New York.

Those three states are considered to be major blue states and have made declarations that they are sanctuary cities for undocumented immigrants. Aside from that, those three states hold one of the highest electoral votes in the Electoral College with 55 for California, 20 for Illinois, and 29 for New York.

They could shift those numbers towards major red states such as Texas and Florida to outnumber California, Illinois, and New York.

The citizenship question will be a misrepresentation of immigrants that will lead to the remodification of districts in favor of the Republican party.

That leads to more Republican seats in the House, who will then only focus on their goals such as lower taxes for the wealthy and less government intervention.

For the next 10 years, the United States will be under Republican control with a simple citizenship question in the 2020 census.

According to Vox, the Supreme Court will look over the lawsuits filed against the Trump administration about the citizenship question and will have a verdict before June.

That’s good news as there is still hope that the citizenship question will be removed from the 2020 census with the Supreme Court’s verdict.

All we can do for now is to hope for the best and pray that the Supreme Court will side with the people rather than the Republican party.