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LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to file or join an amicus brief opposing the federal government’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census.<\/p>\nLOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to file or join an amicus brief opposing the federal government’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Hilda Solis recommended the move, saying that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding are at stake for the county.<\/p>\n
“Los Angeles County stands to lose a lot,” Solis said. “Our county has already been ranked as the hardest to count.”<\/p>\n
An estimated 3 1\/2 million immigrants live in the county and the concern is that many will not fill out a census form that inquires about their citizenship status out of fear of deportation, for themselves or loved ones.<\/p>\n
Roughly $400 billion in federal funding for education, public health, transportation and other critical functions are allocated on the basis of the census data.<\/p>\n
Congressional seats are also apportioned based on that data.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Kathryn Barger said it shouldn’t be a political issue.<\/p>\n
“This is not about documented and undocumented. This is about getting an accurate count,” Barger said. She said “this county is not sustainable” based on local funding alone.<\/p>\n
Immigration rights advocates and others agreed.<\/p>\n
“This is about protecting a 200-year-old institution from being politicized,” said Efrain Escobedo of the California Community Foundation, noting that a citizenship question has not been included in the U.S. Census since 1950.<\/p>\n
Supervisor Janice Hahn, who co-authored Solis’ motion, cited a “level of fear and mistrust in our immigrant communities” that she said wasn’t surprising given an atmosphere of “added aggression” from the current administration.<\/p>\n
“We have seen (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents) come in and round people up, people who have lived here for 35, 40 years,” Hahn said.<\/p>\n
A man wearing a red “Make California Great Again” hat disagreed, called the board’s action corrupt.<\/p>\n
“The census is supposed to take note of the citizens in this country, not those who came here illegally,” Arthur Schaper told the board. “We are not a democracy, we are a republic in which the rights of all citizens are protected, regardless of who is in power and regardless of public sentiment.”<\/p>\n
The board’s vote was 4-0. Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas was absent from the meeting.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to file or join an amicus brief opposing the federal government’s addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 U.S. Census. Supervisor Hilda Solis recommended the move, saying that hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding are at stake for the county. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":81104,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81103"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81103"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81103\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}