Assemblywoman Yvonne Lopez released the following statement on recent efforts to ensure fairness and accuracy in the 2020 Census:
“As a member of the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL) I joined an amicus brief filed on our behalf by LatinoJustice PRLDEF in the case of Department of Commerce v. New York, calling on the Court to declare unconstitutional or illegal the Administration’s proposed inclusion of a citizenship question in the 2020 Decennial Census.
“The people of the State of New Jersey demand that we all be counted in the Census, just like the Constitution explicitly states. Since the 2010 Census, our Hispanic state population has undoubtedly grown. I join my fellow Hispanic State Legislators in not allowing political interference to put into question the accuracy of our nation’s population count.
“The rich diversity present in New Jersey is what makes the Garden State such an exceptional place to live and in the 2020 Census we need to ensure that the diverse people in our state are accurately represented. I implore that politics does not come before policy and that the citizenship question is overturned. The 2020 Census is already fraught with challenges that will make a complete count difficult and we do not need an additional burden for our most hard to count communities in New Jersey and throughout the nation.
“As a Commissioner serving on the State of New Jersey Complete Count Commission, I once again call on the Supreme Court to overturn the citizenship question and urge our Congressional delegation to continue advocating for a fair Census.”