Hawaii AG among those pushing back on citizenship question on censusNEW YORK — A coalition of state attorneys general is urging the U.S. Department of Commerce to not add a question about citizenship to the 2020 census, saying it could lower participation among immigrants and cause a population undercount.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra led a letter sent on Monday to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.
The letter says adding the question “would fatally undermine the accuracy” of the 2020 count.
They were joined by Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The governor of Colorado also signed on.
Hawaii’s acting attorney general is Russell Suzuki.
There was no immediate comment from the federal Commerce Department.