(San Francisco, Calif.) – The Trump administration’s attempt to exclude immigrants from the nation’s census violates the one person/one vote guarantee in the U.S. Constitution, as well as sections which guard against intentional discrimination and other provisions, according to a lawsuit filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in federal court for the Northern District of California today on behalf of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI), the City of San Jose, King County, Wash. and Arlington County, Va.
Due to pending prior litigation filed by the National Lawyers’ Committee against the Trump administration which involves the Arlington County, Va. police department, private New York-based law firm, Latham & Watkins, will represent Arlington County in today’s lawsuit.
President Donald Trump issued an Executive Memorandum last Tuesday, the Apportionment Exclusion Order, which directed the Secretary of Commerce to provide him with census statistics that will erase the existence of undocumented immigrants living in the country. The order states that, for the first time in this country’s history, undocumented immigrants no longer count as persons under the U.S. Constitution. This attempt runs contrary to the Constitution’s words and the practice of every presidential administration since 1790.
“The president’s apportionment order is illegal,” said (PERSON), (TITLE) at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “It violates the Constitution and the Census Act, and it discriminates against people based on race, ethnicity, and national origin, and subverts numerous other constitutional clauses. If our Constitution contains the words we all live by then President Trump, through this order, seeks no less than to accelerate the demise of our democratic way of living by erasing the existence of millions of people with the stroke of his pen.”
The Trump administration’s attempt to exclude these residents from being included in the census has a direct negative impact on deciding how many members of Congress are apportioned to the states. The order has no positive net effect for the country except to deceive citizen, defraud communities and dehumanize residents of the United States.
No provision of the Constitution excludes undocumented immigrants residing in the United States, the lawsuit states. Regardless of their immigration status, undocumented residents have never before been deemed non-persons under the Constitution and should not be erased by this administration, the suit contends.
Read the lawsuit here.
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About the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (Lawyers’ Committee), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes. For more information, please visit: https://lawyerscommittee.org.
