Attorney General Bonta Co-Leads Multistate Fight Against Proposed 2030 Census Changes
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on November 2 that he co-led a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors in submitting a comment letter strongly opposing the Trump Administration's proposed changes to the 2030 Census.
The letter says a proposed rule by the U.S. Census Bureau would exclude millions of noncitizens from the census and prohibit questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Based on available data, the proposal would exclude roughly 16.1 million people nationwide, including around 3 million California residents, more than 7.5% of the state's population.
Bonta said the U.S. Constitution requires the Census to count every person living in the United States, and that excluding millions of people is not only unlawful but threatens communities' political representation and distorts access to critical federal funding.
The coalition argues the rule would unlawfully exclude immigrants in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Census Act, would deprive states of demographic data they rely on for public policy and antidiscrimination enforcement, and would abandon the usual-residence standard used since 1790 in favor of a new test based on where people lawfully spend the most days between January 3 and April 1, backed by tax records.
The letter was co-led by Bonta and the attorneys general of Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York, joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Related: Kansas and Missouri Attorneys General Lead 22 States Backing Census Rule Change
(Source: California Attorney General's Office)
Source: California Attorney General's Office
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Sacramento 的加州总检察长办公室大楼。Coolcaesar 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The California Attorney General's office building in Sacramento. Photo by Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
