By James E. Garcia | Arizona Mirror
As the D.C. press corps spends the week chasing Trump’s newest shiny objects, a federal court in San Francisco began taking testimony in a suit involving what may be one of the most underreported but nationally significant story of the decade: the once-a-decade U.S. census count.
The case was brought by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and four local governments in the state. It centers on a single question proposed by the Trump Administration for the Census survey: “Is this person a citizen of the United States?”
What? You didn’t realize it’s almost time for the Census count to begin? Don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. It’s easy to get distracted by “bombshell” breaking news about a Congressional Democrat dropping a victory-party F-bomb, or what U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema wore to her swearing-in (she wore pink).
Why is this lawsuit important? The future of all Arizonans depends on how accurately we get counted. Experts say that, for every person counted in the state, Arizona will receive about $2,000 in federal funding for education, highway construction, small business loans, grants to nonprofits, food for the poor, Medicare, farm subsidies, university research, and the list goes on. The results of the next census are also expected to earn Arizona another seat in Congress.
