MSNBC trips over nonsense narrative that census citizenship question is really about voter suppression

Joe Simonson, DCNF

President Donald Trump’s administration’s decision to add a citizenship status inquiry in the 2020 census prompted many state Democratic attorney generals to sue the federal government and several media members for accusing the president of a nefarious plot to somehow restrict the franchise of minorities.

You’re not alone if that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to you. On MSNBC Tuesday, Chris Jansing asked her panel if the added question was really “about getting an accurate view of the census and protecting voting rights? Or is it to, in fact, suppress minority voting, to hurt the Democrats as that redistricting takes place?”

It’s unclear how recording an individual’s immigration status would “suppress” their voting whatsoever, considering only American citizens can participate in federal elections.

Even Slate’s Mike Pesca had to tell Jansing to pump the breaks, responding the move isn’t “exactly to suppress voting” but rather, in his eyes, “to suppress representation.”

One of the fears liberals hold with the administration’s decision is certain types of immigrants may not answer the citizenship question or participate in the census because it could put them in legal jeopardy.

In other words, Democratic states with high illegal alien populations like California could actually lose House seats if its population gets distorted. Of course, one could look at this possibility as a consequence of harboring large numbers of illegal aliens and not cooperating with federal immigration enforcement.

“The Census numbers provide the backbone for planning how our communities can grow and thrive in the coming decade. California simply has too much to lose for us to allow the Trump administration to botch this important decennial obligation,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

According to a 2017 Pew Research Center study, roughly one million illegal aliens reside in Los Angeles.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez echoed Jansing’s talking point and called the new question “a craven attack on our democracy and a transparent attempt to intimidate immigrant communities.”

The “2020 census question is all about voter suppression,” a Daily Beast column declared. A Mother Jones writer cited an immigrant who said, “the word ‘citizen’ scares us.”

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