First Focus submitted this public comment letter on the Proposed Information Collection on 2020 Census, Docket No. USBC-201-0005.
Excerpt:
Therefore, the inclusion of a citizenship question would only exacerbate under-counting young children in the 2020 census, and would adversely impact children of mixed status families and communities with large populations of immigrants by deterring participation and lowering the census response rate.
Under-counting children results in severe negative implications for our nation. As you know well, the U.S. Constitution requires an accurate count of the nation’s population every ten years, and the successful implementation of the decennial census shapes far-reaching outcomes for some of the most vulnerable in our society. The government uses census-derived data to guide the allocation of hundreds of billions of federal dollars to programs benefiting children and low-income families. The census count also impacts private investment decisions that lead to economic development opportunities for our communities and determines the distribution of our congressional seats and fair political representation.