This week, the Justice Department said it will restore a question about citizenship to the U.S. Census for the first time since the 1950s. Immediately after the announcement, the state of California sued the Trump administration saying the question about citizenship was unconstitutional.

Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach is available to discuss the issue. She studies policies aimed at improving the lives of children in poverty, including education, health and income support policies. Her recent work has focused on tracing the impact of major public policies such as the Food Stamp Program and early childhood education on children’s long-term outcomes. 

She is director and faculty fellow at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research and the Margaret Walker Alexander Professor of Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Quote from Professor Schanzenbach

“A number of factors are making it more difficult to conduct a successful census. These include increasing cultural and linguistic diversity as well as distrust of government. The addition of the citizenship question will only exacerbate this distrust, potentially leading to reduced participation among immigrants who fear the information will be used against them or their families.

“This could lead to inaccurate census results, which would have lasting repercussions. The census is used to draw political districts at all levels of government and determines the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives. It also affects the distribution of billions of dollars of federal funding for local infrastructure projects and vital services like hospitals and schools.

“It takes a lot of advance planning to properly conduct a census, and anything new has to be carefully vetted and tested. Time is running short to make smart investments in the necessary technology and messaging."